newbery honor author 

new york times bestseller

Gennifer Choldenko
Gennifer Choldenko
Al Capone Does My Shirts

Buy the Book 

Bookshop.org

Barnes & Noble

Amazon.com

Bookshop.org

Barnes & Noble

Amazon.com

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Amazon.com

Libro.fm

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Amazon.com

Listen to an Excerpt

Al Capone Does My Shirts

by Gen­nifer Chold­enko
ages 10 and up
Put­nam, 2004, 978–0‑399–23861‑1 (hc)
Puf­fin, 2006, 978–0‑14–240370‑9 (pb)

Synopsis

“1935. I want to be on Alca­traz like I want poi­son oak on my pri­vate parts. But appar­ent­ly nobody cares, because now I’m Moose Flana­gan, Alca­traz Island Boy all so my sis­ter can go to the Esther P. Mari­noff School, where kids have mac­a­roni sal­ad in their hair and wear their clothes inside out and there isn’t a chalk­board or a book in sight.

“Good Moose. Obe­di­ent Moose. I always do what I’m sup­posed to do.”

When Moose’s fam­i­ly moves to Alca­traz so his father can work as a guard and his sis­ter can attend a spe­cial school in San Fran­cis­co, Moose has to leave his friends and his win­ning base­ball team behind. But it’s worth it, right? If his sis­ter, Natal­ie, can final­ly get help, maybe his fam­i­ly will final­ly be normal.

But as it turns out, life on Alca­traz is much more com­pli­cat­ed than even Moose would have predicted.

His dad is so busy, he’s nev­er around. His mom’s pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with Natal­ie’s con­di­tion (today it would be called autism) is even worse now that there’s no extend­ed fam­i­ly to help with her tantrums and con­stant needs. And of course, there’s nev­er enough money.

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 par­en­t’s expec­ta­tions, and stay out of trou­ble. But on Alca­traz, trou­ble is nev­er very far away.

Resources

Awards and Recognition

  • 2005 CBC-NCSS Notable Social Stud­ies Trade Books for Young People

  • LA Notable Book

  • ALA Notable Recording

  • ALA/ALSC New­bery Honor

  • All Coun­ty Read, Napa Coun­ty, Solano Coun­ty, CA

  • All school read, Poyn­ton High School, Great Britain

  • Amer­i­can Lit­er­a­cy Cor­po­ra­tion Lit­er­ary Choice Award

  • AudioFile Mag­a­zine Best of the Best Audio Books

  • Best Book for Young Adults

  • Bank Street Col­lege Best Children’s Books of the Year

  • Book Sense Pick of the List Sum­mer 2004

  • Book­list 50 Best Mid­dle-Grade Nov­els of the 21st Cen­tu­ry (Tales from Alcatraz)

  • Bor­ders Orig­i­nal Voice

  • Cal­i­for­nia Library Asso­ci­a­tion Beat­ty Award

  • Cal­i­for­nia Library Asso­ci­a­tion Focal Award

  • Cal­i­for­nia Young Read­ers Medal

  • Cap­i­tal Choic­es Note­wor­thy Books for Children

  • Carnegie Medal, short-list­ed (UK)

  • Chica­go Pub­lic Library Best of the Best

  • Children’s Book of the Month Selection

  • Children’s Bookseller’s Award— Favorite Nov­el of the Year

  • CUFFIE’S Best Title of the Year

  • Gar­den State Children’s Book Award Winner

  • Jour­nal de Mick­ey Award

  • Judy Lopez Hon­or Award

  • Junior Library Guild Selection

  • Key­stone State Read­ing Asso­ci­a­tion YA Book Award

  • Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

  • Lon­don Times and NASEN

  • New York Library Best 100 Books for Read­ing and Sharing

  • New York Library’s 2005 Books for the Teen Age

  • New York Times Best­seller List for more than 6 months

  • North­ern Cal­i­for­nia Book Award

  • Par­ents’ Choice Sil­ver Medal

  • Pub­lish­er’s Week­ly Best Book of the Year

  • Record­ed Books Audio Version

  • San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle Top Ten Chil­dren’s Books of 2004

  • Scholas­tic Book Club (Lit­er­a­ture Cir­cle) Selection

  • School Library Jour­nal Best Book of the Year

  • Sid Fleis­chman Humor Award, SCBWI

  • Spe­cial Needs Award (UK)

  • VOY­A’s Top Shelf Fic­tion for Mid­dle School Read­ers 2004

  • YALSA Select­ed Audio­books for Young Adults

Children’s Choice Nominees

  • Cal­i­for­nia (Win­ner)

  • Con­necti­cut

  • Flori­da

  • Hawaii

  • Illi­nois

  • Iowa

  • Kansas

  • Ken­tucky

  • Louisiana

  • Maine

  • Mass­a­chu­setts

  • Michi­gan

  • Min­neso­ta

  • Mis­souri

  • Neva­da

  • New Jer­sey (Win­ner)

  • New Mex­i­co

  • Okla­homa

  • Pacif­ic Northwest

  • Penn­syl­va­nia (Win­ner)

  • South Car­oli­na

  • Texas

  • Ver­mont

  • Vir­ginia

  • All Coun­ty Read, Napa Coun­ty, Solano Coun­ty, CA

  • All coun­ty read, Napa Coun­ty, Solano Coun­ty, CA

  • All school read, Poyn­ton High School, Great Britain

Reviews

  “Chold­enko’s pac­ing is exquis­ite, bal­anc­ing the tense fam­i­ly dynam­ics along­side the often-humor­ous and riv­et­ing school sto­ry of peer pres­sure and friend­ship.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

  “Choldenko’s excep­tion­al­ly atmos­pher­ic nov­el has equal­ly unusu­al char­ac­ters and plot lines … Fast-paced and mem­o­rable.” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly, starred review)

  “The sto­ry, told with skill and humor, 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.” (School Library Jour­nal, starred review)

“Al Capone Does My Shirts is heart-stop­ping … heartrend­ing … heart­warm­ing.” (San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle)

“Extra­or­di­nary set­ting: Alca­traz Island, 1935 … exu­ber­ant sto­ry­telling” (The Wash­ing­ton Post)

“Choldenko’s nov­el is a mar­vel. Writ­ing with great ten­der­ness and fresh­ness and style, she unfolds a taut dra­ma of two kids strug­gling to come of age against an extra­or­di­nary back­ground — Alca­traz Island.” (Sid Fleis­chman, author of The Whip­ping Boy, New­bery winner)

Best New Books for Young Adults: “Author Chold­enko has giv­en breath to the fresh­est voice since Jack Gantos’s Joey Pigza, in the most inven­tive set­ting since, well, ever.” (Time Out New York Kids)

“Com­pelling … Chold­enko cre­ates in Natal­ie a believ­able fic­tion­al char­ac­ter, not just a diag­no­sis.” (Chica­go Tri­bune)

“Pure genius, filled with heart, hope, despair and some of the most lov­able char­ac­ters you’ll ever meet. The end­ing leaves you so sat­is­fied, you want to pick it up and start read­ing, again.” (Nor­ma, online reviewer)

“A sen­si­tive por­trait of autism and how it affects a fam­i­ly … an affect­ing nov­el.” (KLIATT)

“A poignant and enter­tain­ing nov­el that man­ages to mix such seri­ous issues as spe­cial needs and Depres­sion-era pover­ty with an excit­ing­ly dan­ger­ous set­ting and believ­able, flawed and ulti­mate­ly appeal­ing char­ac­ters.” (Book of the Week, Fort Worth Star Telegram)

Short-list­ed for the Carnegie Medal: “A deeply felt and remark­able tale of fam­i­ly and friend­ship. Round char­ac­ter­i­za­tion, humour and well-researched detail con­tribute to an immense­ly sat­is­fy­ing read.” (Carnegie Committee)

“A mas­ter­piece.” (The Guardian)