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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607002639105 | Middle Fiction | CHOLDENKO | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Moose Flannagan moves with his family to Alcatraz so his dad can work as a prison guard and his sister, Natalie, can attend a special school. But Natalie has autism, and when she's denied admittance to the school, the stark setting of Alcatraz begins to unravel the tenuous coping mechanisms Moose's family has used for dealing with her disorder.
When Moose meets Piper, the cute daughter of the Warden, he knows right off she's trouble. But she's also strangely irresistible. All Moose wants to do is protect Natalie, live up to his parents' expectations, and stay out of trouble. But on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away.
Set in 1935, when guards actually lived on Alcatraz Island with their families. Choldenko's second novel brings humor to the complexities of family dynamics and illuminates the real struggle of a kid trying to free himself from the "good boy" stance he's taken his whole life.
Author Notes
Gennifer Choldenko was born in Santa Monica, California.
Gennifer Choldenko is a Newbery Honor-winning American writer of popular books for children and adolescents. Her first novel, Notes From a Liar and Her Dog was named "Best Book of the Year" by School Library Journal and her second, Al Capone Does My Shirts, part of Al Capone on Alcatraz series, won the 2005 Newbery Honor citation.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-8-In this appealing novel set in 1935, 12-year-old Moose Flanagan and his family move from Santa Monica to Alcatraz Island where his father gets a job as an electrician at the prison and his mother hopes to send his autistic older sister to a special school in San Francisco. When Natalie is rejected by the school, Moose is unable to play baseball because he must take care of her, and her unorthodox behavior sometimes lands him in hot water. He also comes to grief when he reluctantly goes along with a moneymaking scheme dreamed up by the warden's pretty but troublesome daughter. Family dilemmas are at the center of the story, but history and setting-including plenty of references to the prison's most infamous inmate, mob boss Al Capone-play an important part, too. The Flanagan family is believable in the way each member deals with Natalie and her difficulties, and Moose makes a sympathetic main character. The story, told with humor and skill, will fascinate readers with an interest in what it was like for the children of prison guards and other workers to actually grow up on Alcatraz Island.-Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set on Alcatraz Island in 1935, Choldenko's (Notes from a Liar and Her Dog) exceptionally atmospheric novel has equally unusual characters and plot lines. Twelve-year-old narrator Moose Flanagan has just moved to the island, where his father has been hired as an electrician and guard. At first Moose is spooked at being in such close proximity to the nation's most notorious criminals, and he doesn't know what to make of the all-powerful warden's bossy daughter, Piper, who flouts her father's rule about talking about the convicts ("You say [Al Capone's] name and hordes of reporters come crawling out of the woodwork ready to write stories full of foolish lies," the warden explains). At school, on the mainland, Piper hatches a scheme to make money from classmates ("Once in a lifetime opportunity! Get your clothes laundered by Al Capone and other world-famous public enemies!... Only costs 5 cents") and forces Moose to help her. Moose has reasons for staying on Piper's good side: his older sister, Natalie, has what would now be called autism, and Moose worries that her behavior will land the family in trouble with the warden. (Natalie's condition is so poorly understood that an expert tells her desperate mother, "An interesting case... you should consider donating her brain to science when she dies.") Choldenko captures the tense, nuanced family dynamics touched off by Natalie's disability as skillfully as she handles the mystique of Alcatraz and the exchanges between Moose and his friends. Fast-paced and memorable. Ages 10-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Table of Contents
| Part 1 | |
| 1. Devil's Island | p. 3 |
| 2. Errand Boy | p. 7 |
| 3. Trick Monkey | p. 13 |
| 4. American Laugh-Nosed Beet | p. 22 |
| 5. Murderers Darn My Socks | p. 29 |
| 6. Sucker | p. 35 |
| 7. Big for Seventh Grade | p. 42 |
| 8. Prison Guy Plays Ball | p. 48 |
| 9. Nice Little Church Boy | p. 53 |
| 10. Not Ready | p. 60 |
| 11. The Best in the Country | p. 64 |
| 12. What About the Electric Chair? | p. 71 |
| 13. One-Woman Commando Unit | p. 80 |
| 14. Al Capone's Baseball | p. 87 |
| 15. Looking for Scarface | p. 90 |
| 16. Capone Washed Your Shirts | p. 98 |
| 17. Baseball on Tuesday | p. 103 |
| 18. Not on My Team | p. 106 |
| 19. Daddy's Little Miss | p. 109 |
| 20. Warning | p. 117 |
| Part 2 | |
| 21. It Never Rains on Monday | p. 125 |
| 22. Al Capone's Mama | p. 130 |
| 23. She's not Cute | p. 135 |
| 24. Like a Regular Sister | p. 140 |
| 25. My Gap | p. 143 |
| 26. Convict Baseball | p. 147 |
| 27. Idiot | p. 149 |
| 28. Tall for Her Age | p. 154 |
| 29. Convict Choir Boy | p. 159 |
| 30. Eye | p. 165 |
| 31. My Dad | p. 171 |
| 32. The Button Box | p. 174 |
| Part 3 | |
| 33. The Sun and the Moon | p. 179 |
| 34. Happy Birthday | p. 186 |
| 35. The Truth | p. 192 |
| 36. Waiting | p. 195 |
| 37. Carrie Kelly | p. 199 |
| 38. What happened? | p. 205 |
| 39. The Warden | p. 212 |
| 40. Al Capone Does My Shirts | p. 215 |
| Author's Note | p. 217 |
| Notes | p. 227 |