Al Capone Does My Shirts

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.

Author Information

Gennifer Choldenko was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1957, the youngest child in a family of four children. One of Choldenko's sisters suffered from severe autism and inspired the character of Natalie in this book. Choldenko began her writing career with a job as a copywriter in a small ad agency. She began taking classes in illustration, and this eventually led to a full-time study of illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. After becoming very successful in advertising, she began to pursue her real love children's books, and her first novel Notes from a Liar and Her Dog was chosen as a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and won several other awards. Choldenko is married with two children, and she lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Book Summary

In this novel, Moose Flanagan and his family move to Alcatraz Island, where Moose's father has gotten a job as both electrician and prison guard for the federal prison situated on the island. Moose misses his friends back home and resents his mother for uprooting the family for another of her schemes to help his sister Natalie be normal. Almost immediately, Moose finds himself in trouble when the daughter of the warden, Piper, draws him into a scheme to make money off of the name of the most famous prisoner at Alcatraz, Al Capone. However, Moose soon learns he does not need Piper to find trouble.

Moose Flanagan is unhappy with the move to Alcatraz because he misses his friends and grandmother back in Santa Monica. To make matters worse, Moose's father is working so much that he does not have time to toss the ball with Moose. However, his father does have time to take Natalie for a walk to give his mother a break. It is all because of Natalie they are there in the first place, so she can attend the Esther P. Marinoff School in San Francisco.

Theresa Mattaman comes by the apartment their first morning there and takes Moose and Natalie on a short tour of the island. They run into Piper, the warden's daughter, who immediately asks uncomfortable questions about Natalie. Moose does not like it when people assume Natalie is stupid simply because she is different. Piper's questions just make Moose dislike her.

The next morning, Moose and his family take Natalie to her new school. Natalie is aware something is happening and nearly refuses to get off the boat, but Moose manages to convince her to go. Back on Alcatraz, Moose thinks about all the other attempts his mother has made to fix Natalie, including a study at UCLA that ended with the doctors telling his mother there was nothing they could do for Natalie. Moose thinks it was then when his mother insisted that Natalie was only ten, each and every birthday since.

The first day of school in San Francisco is exciting for Moose, who discovers a group of boys who organize a baseball game every Monday. Moose is riding high as he makes his way home, but his bubble burst when he receives a phone call from the Esther P. Marinoff School asking his parents to come pick up Natalie immediately. Moose goes with his mother to the school where they are told that Natalie is simply not ready for their program. The dean of the school gives Moose's mother the name of a woman he claims will help, another dead end road as far as Moose is concerned.

Piper comes up with a scheme to have kids at school pay to have their clothing washed in the prison laundry for a nickel

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