newbery honor author 

new york times bestseller

Gennifer Choldenko
Gennifer Choldenko
Al Capone Shines My Shoes

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Al Capone Shines My Shoes

by Gen­nifer Chold­enko
ages 10 and up
Dial, Sep­tem­ber 3, 2009
ISBN 978–0‑803–73460‑9 (hc)
ISBN 978–0‑142–41718‑8 (pb)

Synopsis

“Noth­ing is the way it’s sup­posed to be when you live on an island with a bil­lion birds, a ton of bird crap, a few dozen rifles, machine guns and auto­mat­ics and 278 of America’s worst crim­i­nals — “the cream of the crim­i­nal crop” as one of our felons likes to say. The con­victs on Alca­traz are rot­ten to the core, crazy in the head, and as slip­pery as eels in axle grease.

“And then there’s me. Moose Flana­gan. I live on Alca­traz along with 24 oth­er kids and one more on the way. My father works as a prison guard and an elec­tri­cian in the cell house up top. I live where most of us “civil­ians” do in 64 build­ing which is dock­side on the East side of Alca­traz — a base hit from the mob­ster Al Capone.

“Not many 12-year-old boys can say that. Not many kids can say when their toi­let is stopped up, they get Sev­en Fin­gers, the Ax Mur­der­er, to help them out, either .…”

Resources

Awards and Recognition

  • Amazon.com Top Ten Mid­dle Grade Nov­els for 2009

  • Bank Street Col­lege Best Books of the Year 2010

  • Barnes and Noble Best Children’s Books of 2009

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

  • Chica­go Pub­lic Library Best of the Best 2009

  • Children’s Book of the Month Main Selec­tion for 9–12 year olds

  • Chris­t­ian Sci­ence Mon­i­tor Best Chil­dren’s Books for 2009

  • Colum­bus Dis­patch Best Chil­dren’s Books of 2009

  • Cuffy Hon­or­able Men­tion Award for Favorite Sequel 2009

  • Goodreads Choice Award, 2009 nominee

  • Indie Book­seller Hon­or, Best Mid­dle Grade Book cat­e­go­ry 2010

  • Junior Library Guild selection

  • Kirkus Reviews Best Chil­dren’s Books of 2009

  • Min­neso­ta Pub­lic Radio’s Books to Read in 2010

  • NCIBA Best Mid­dle Grade Book of the Year 2010

  • New York State Read­ing Asso­ci­a­tion Char­lotte Award Mas­ter List

  • Oppen­heim Toy Port­fo­lio Award for the audio recording

  • San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle Best Chil­dren’s Books of 2009

  • Scholas­tic Book Fair and Book Club Hard­cov­er Selection

Reviews

  “Chold­enko hits a grand slam … effort­less … per­fect­ly paced … sol­id-gold sequel.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

  “Superla­tive his­tor­i­cal fic­tion.” (School Library Jour­nal, starred review)

“Chold­enko deliv­ers a crowd-pleas­ing sequel … while the adult char­ac­ters are drawn with warmth and sym­pa­thy, Moose’s nar­ra­tion keeps the sto­ry firm­ly ground­ed in a child’s view­point as he comes to a greater appre­ci­a­tion not only of his sis­ter but also of the con­flict­ing impuls­es in human nature for good and evil.” (The Horn Book)

“With ency­clo­pe­dic knowl­edge of Alca­traz cir­ca 1935 and empa­thy born of per­son­al expe­ri­ence, Chold­enko scores again. This win­ning and won­der­ful­ly imag­ined nov­el grace­ful­ly deals with the dilem­mas that com­pli­cate life, fuel great lit­er­a­ture, and chal­lenge us all to do the right thing.” (Susan Faust, The San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle)

“One of Chold­enko’s many strengths is her grasp of the his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate lan­guage and set­ting … an enjoy­able, stand-alone sequel.” (Book­list)

Front cov­er of the JLG Month­ly Mag­a­zine! “Amaz­ing sequel” … “Well-writ­ten and engag­ing with ful­ly real­ized char­ac­ters … Moose has a great nar­ra­tive voice … Chold­enko does an excel­lent job devel­op­ing and build­ing the plot … a wor­thy fol­low-up to Al Capone Does My Shirts, a New­bery Hon­or book that also stands on its own.” (Junior Library Guild)

“Gen­nifer Chold­enko’s 2004 nov­el, Al Capone Does My Shirts, was such a per­fect book, it was hard to imag­ine a sequel. … Per­haps the most aston­ish­ing accom­plish­ment of Al Capone Shines My Shoes is that Chold­enko auda­cious­ly intro­duces us to the leg­endary Al Capone and gives him flesh and spir­it of a very human kind.” (Los Ange­les Times)

“What a ter­rif­ic book! I love the adven­tures of Moose and his friends on Alca­traz Island in the 1930s. The por­tray­al of Moose 16 year-old autis­tic sis­ter was extreme­ly well done. The author did a great job research­ing the peri­od and life on Alca­traz Island. Kudos to the author and her edi­tor.” (Floyd C. Dick­man, Spe­cial­ist in Chil­dren’s and Young Adult Literature)

“The plot is sus­pense­ful and filled with humor and sur­pris­es right up to the end, which is total­ly unpre­dictable, but believ­able. When I read the last words of the book; I could only smile and think, ‘Of course.’” (Prose and Kahn blog)

“High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for fans of the first book, as well as any read­er ages 9 to 13 who rel­ish­es a straight-for­ward sus­pense­ful tale told by a com­plete­ly lik­able char­ac­ter.” (Eva’s Book Addic­tion blog)

“Choldenko’s new nov­el will be as admired and appre­ci­at­ed as was her ear­li­er sto­ry of the kids liv­ing on Alca­traz Island … a very excit­ing can’t‑wait-to-see-what-happens-next sto­ry. Kids and grown-ups are going to love this one.” (The Chris­t­ian Sci­ence Mon­i­tor)

“(A) win­ning sequel … the cast of char­ac­ters brims with life. Moose’s pure-boy voice is won­der­ful and the his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate details fas­ci­nate.” (The Cleve­land Plain Deal­er)

“Believ­able char­ac­ters and a riv­et­ing sto­ry sprin­kled with heart and humor makes this a mar­velous vaca­tion read.” (San Jose Mer­cury News)

“The evoca­tive set­ting and sen­si­tive por­tray­al of Moose’s sis­ter Natal­ie, whose autism has yet to be recog­nised as a con­di­tion, add depth to the sto­ry of a well-mean­ing boy floun­der­ing in and out of trou­ble.” (The Book­seller)

“This sequel is inge­nious … The ter­rif­ic sto­ry­telling, which adds sus­pense and dread to the humour and poignan­cy of the first book, is under­pinned by the author’s own mem­o­ries of her autis­tic sis­ter and her dili­gent research into the his­to­ry of the inhab­i­tants of Alca­traz.” (The Times, Lon­don)

“My wait is now over, and the book was more than worth wait­ing for. Set­ting aside the autism angle yet again, which on its own is enough to please me, this is such a mar­vel­lous sto­ry! It’s decep­tive­ly sim­ple, but as you begin read­ing you’re imme­di­ate­ly sucked into the sto­ry …” (Book­witch)