Review - Al Capone Does My Shirts

I finally finished Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. It was a fun book. It was especially interesting since I have been on the island several times, as a visitor.

The premise of the book is a story of Moose and his family. His father takes a job as a guard at Alcatraz and as a result they move out to the island. Moose meets other children, including the spoiled warden's daughter, other children living on tghe island, and children that attend his school in the city (San Francisco). His older sister has severe autism and he has to learn to deal with that and how to explain it to others.

The warden's daughter contrives a plot to have their classmates laundry done by prisoners, for a fee of course. She tells them Al Capone works in the laundry and will be doing their laundry. She pulls Moose and some of the other island children into her plot which is quickly discovered by her father.

It was an interesting book but probably appropriate more for older children. There is not anything offensive in it. 225 pages which includes interesting notes about children and their families that lived on the island during the operation of the famous prison.