Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Twelve year old Moose Flanagan has just moved to Alcatraz, the island prison that housed some of the country’s most notorious and worst prisoners including Al Capone. The year is 1935 and Moose’s father has taken a job as a prison guard and so that his sister Natalie can attend a special school close by in San Francisco. At that time there was not yet a medical diagnosis for her disability, autism, and Moose’s mother has been willing to try just about anything, including lying about Natalie’s age, in order to find a “cure”.

Moose isn’t sure about living on “a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water”. It’s hard enough to leave your friends and start a new school. But for Moose, it’s made much worse due to the fact that the warden’s daughter, Piper, is always hatching a scheme, from selling the opportunity to have your skivvies laundered by a famous prisoner, finding and selling prison baseballs, to meeting Al Capone’s mother. If Piper wasn’t bad enough, Moose has to watch Natalie after school and can’t play baseball with his classmate.

Is it possible that Alcatraz and it’s most infamous prisoner could finally be a step in the right direction for Moose and his family? See what happens when Al Capone Does My Shirts.