And there are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cooks or doctors or electricians for the prison like my dad does. There’s my sister, Natalie, except she doesn’t count. Alcatraz sits smack in the middle of the bay-so close to the city of San Francisco, I can hear them call the score on a baseball game on Marina Green.

Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. Photo Credit: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library “Al Capone Does My Shirts” is a quirky and fulfilling read about finding your way among your peers, doing right by your family and finding excitement along the way. Those who enjoy the history of the island will enjoy this Newberry Honor book. This book brilliantly brings to life Alcatraz and the 1930’s. However, when you live so close to the most dangerous people in the country, it isn’t long before the lives of the inmates and those living on the island collide. Moose accepts the responsibility of ensuring Natalie is taken care of, tries to please his friends and attempts to stay out of sight of the inmates and the warden.

Moose’s father is working two jobs and barely has time to spend with his family and Moose’s mother seems to only have time for Natalie. Piper, the warden’s daughter who always has a new scheme up her sleeve to get inside the prison and meet Al Capone, attempts to get Moose and the other children on the island to partake in her (mostly against the rules) plans. Life has other plans, however, as his mother quickly puts him in charge of his sister Natalie, a “tall-for-her-age” girl with a disability who loves numbers. Living in the backyard of hard criminals may make some residents nervous but Moose just wants to play baseball and stay out of trouble with the warden. Moose and his family move to Alcatraz after his father gets a job as a prison guard in the 1930’s.

In the book al capone does my shirts