Al Capone Does My Shirts By Jennifer Choldenko Review By: Grant D.

Characters The main character in this book is Moose (Mathew). Moose loves to play baseball and doesn’t really like living on Alcatraz. Moose’s sister is Natalie. She has autism but is very smart. She has a box of buttons that she loves to play with and count. Moose's dad is an electrician on Alcatraz and he also is a guard in the jail! He works very, very long hours. Moose’s mom is a piano teacher some days of the week for extra money. Moose has a couple of other friends who live on Alcatraz. Some are Piper (the wardens daughter) Jimmy, Anne, and Theresa!

Characters extended My favorite character in Al Capone Does My Shirts is Moose. He is my favorite because whenever something goes wrong, he fixes it (especially with Natalie)!!!!

Plot The plot in Al Capone Does My Shirts is very interesting. I think it is because it is about a boy whose dad works on Alcatraz, the jail that is placed on an island with hundreds of criminals! At first he lived in California with a normal live, then he moved to Alcatraz with his family. The book takes place in 1935 when Alcatraz still was a jail. During their time on Alcatraz Moose’s mom and dad try to get their daughter, who has autism, in a special autism school THREE TIMES. Moose wants his sister to get into the school so badly that before her last interview, he sneaks a letter (written to Al Capone) into the warden’s house. The warden checks all letters that are sent to the prisoners, Moose wrote a letter to Al Capone. Because most people were scared of Al Capone, Moose urges Al Capone to persuade the Principal of the Autism School to let Natalie in. The next day she got accepted into the school! Also Moose got a letter in his shirt pocket that said done. Moose knew that it was Al!!

BYE About a week later Moose got another note in the same handwriting in his shirt….. –Read the second book AL CAPONE SHINES MY SHOES to see what happens!

Fun Facts!!! Alcatraz was once a high security prison on a small island on the San Francisco Bay 1.5 miles off-shore of San Francisco, California. It was designed so no prisoner could escape without drowning. In 1976, it stopped serving as a jail. Now you can take tours of the island and the prison! Some facts from Wikipedia/Google »Picture of Alcatraz