Choldenko – Al Capone does my Shirts

Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone does my Shirts. New York; G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004.

A Newbery Honor book, Al Capone does my Shirts tells the story of 12 year old Moose Flanagan who, in 1935 moves with his family to Alcatraz. Moose’s sister is autistic & his father takes a job on the island so that they can be closer to the specialist doctors in San Francisco. Moose has a hard enough time fitting in & trying to keep his mind off of baseball just as it is. The schemes of the warden’s daughter only add to his problems. Seeking to capitalize on the fame of the prisons’ notorious inmates, she concocts a scheme to charge for their classmates’ clothes to be laundered by famous felons.

Al Capone was all right. I’m not really a fan of the whole Alcatraz – Al Capone thing, so I think it would have more appeal to others but It’s a popular book & I’ve been wanting to read it for a while. I also wasn’t crazy about the story; spoiled girl scams classmates for cash + unwilling hero caught up in her plan + need to protect/ help the autistic sister; but again, I can see how it has appeal. I’m not always crazy about a story when we can see from the very beginning that the protagonist is going to get blamed for something not their fault. I mean, obviously we need conflict – & we can usually trust that in a book like this ‘it will all work out in the end,’ but I’d like a little surprise or ingenuity. The Alcatraz/ Capone hook may do that for some people but not really for me. I guess mostly, I thought that with a title like Al Capone does my Shirts, I’d be getting something funnier. Don’t get me wrong; Choldenko does have some humor & does a good job with it, but I would not describe it as a primarily funny book. As a historian, what I do really appreciate is that the author provides a section in the back with real facts about Alcatraz & its inmates. She distinguishes between a work of history & a work of historical fiction (which this is). Certainly, I never knew that families actually lived on Alcatraz – babies were even born there.

So… good book for some, not necessarily for me.

As a Newbery Honor Book, reviews for Al Capone as easy to come by. Walter Hogan, writing for VOYA says, “Choldenko…weaves three As-Alcatraz, Al Capone, and autism-into an excellent historical novel for middle-grade readers.”[1] Somewhat more descriptive is ladycato’s descriptive review on LibraryThing; “This middle grade book is a quick read… there were some annoying aspects for me, mainly the warden’s daughter, Piper… It’s rather like an episode of the Flintstones, wherein you know everything is going to go wrong right from the get-go and the innocent is going to get the blame… I’ll be keeping this in my library for my son to read it someday, but I’m not going to rush out and buy the sequel.”[2] As is beginning to become a habit, I’m finding popular reviews to be more informative in terms of a “should I read it?” than the professional reviews in the LIB literature.

Definitely a good title to be displayed with Newbery’s, or with gangster, prison, or Depression-era stuff. Also, I would probably recommend this title to anyone of middle school reading age looking for a book with characters of special needs – not a common request, but it does pop up from time to time. Al Capone would also be a good booktalk book for any middle grade class working on history.

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[1] Hogan, Walter. “Al Capone does my Shirts,” VOYA Reviews. April 2004. as found in Baker & Taylor’s Title Source 3. http://ts3f.informata.com/TS3/record.jsp?rn=9&ps=9&fr=0&anc=9&bs=1&fb=0&n=E%3A\webapp\ts3\main\users\ls000017.rec&AF=2248867&FirstRec=Y (accessed 4/4/10).

[2] ladycato. “Al Capone does my Shirts,” 14 May 2010. LibraryThing. http://www.librarything.com/work/189748 (accessed 4/4/10).

Raskin – The Westing Game

The Westing Game. Raskin, Ellen. New York; E.P. Dutton, 1978.

The Westing Game is the winner of the 1979 Newbery. This clever little book is a mystery involving the death of a multi-millionaire, a puzzling will & a host of characters whose skills are pitted against each other in Samuel Westing’s final game. Each of Westing’s 16 “nieces & nephews” is given $10,000 as an incentive to play & are split up into pairs. Each pair is given a different clue. The winner is supposed to inherit Westing’s $200 Million dollar estate.

I really liked The Westing Game – and I’m not really one for mysteries (it helped that it was short & fast-paced). It had a wonderfully Clue-like feel to it – it was funny & clever at the same time. Furthermore, it really seemed to withstand the test of time. The book is slightly older than I am, yet it didn’t feel dated or out-of-touch; it came across as fresh & exciting. I don’t want to spoil anything about the mystery for any who would read this, so I won’t say too much about the ending, but I loved the clues & The Game itself & I loved trying to figure out the clues on my own as they were presented. The characters were all lively & interesting & Raskin did a good job of presenting a set of ‘the usual suspects’ without making anyone too cliché. In addition, any story which takes place in my Ancestral Homeland of Michigan is sure to win a little extra consideration from your truly.

In a School Library Journal review Margaret Dorsey describes the characters as having “little more than one dimension,” which I think a bit unfair.[1] The book itself is rather short for containing so many characters yet many of them show real development over the course of the story & some have hidden, un-guessed-at depths. Dorsey also gives away the ending; which is sad, considering that her review was so short. I found a later review, coinciding with the release of the audiobook, that is a bit more generous. The book is described as “dazzling,” with a “Rubik’s cube of a plot.”[2]

The Westing Game would be a good reading recommendation to coincide with a grade school or middle school-aged murder-mystery (or some similar type of more politically-correct mystery) program. In fact, it might be possible to set up some kind of “Library Westing Game” in which the books clues could somehow point to places in the library in order to win a prize.

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[1] Dorsey, Margaret A. “The Westing Game,” School Library Journal. April 1978, Vol. 24 Issue 8. pp. 87-88.

[2] Beavin, Kristi,“The Westing Game,” Horn Book Magazine. May/June 1999, Vol. 75 Issue 3. pp. 357.