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