Al Capone Does My Shirts

Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts. ISBN 0-399-23861-1. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive and on the library shelves at FIC CHO.

Natalie Flannagan has autism, but in the year 1935 this disease has not yet been diagnosed. Her father takes a job in the prison at Alcatraz and moves the whole family to the island so she can attend a special school in San Francisco. There, children like her receive treatment that is sometimes successful in pulling them out of their shells.

Moose Flannagan is not happy about this move. He loves baseball and already misses his Santa Monica friends. As the younger brother, he towers over Natalie yet must take care of her. He meets the Warden’s beautiful but dangerous daughter, Piper, who always has a scheme or two up her sleeve to make money. Her goal is to meet Al Capone, an inmate at Alcatraz.

But when Natalie is not admitted to the Esther P. Marinoff school, the family’s life becomes unbearable. Moose’s mother must find work to pay for a specialist, and Moose must babysit Natalie everyday after school. And with inmates and the infamous Al Capone on the island, trouble is never far for Moose. Can he keep his nose down and help his family deal with hard truths about Natalie, or will he get implicated in one of Piper’s mad capers and cost his family everything?

Set at a time where guards and their families did live on the island, this book provides an excellent look at a period and a place in American history that has been mythologized. Fans of historical fiction and of the love that helps a family pull together will enjoy this book.