Al Capone does my shirts

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Moose likes a girl who tends to get him in trouble because he likes the way she looks. Moose is twelve; preteen kids don't always think about consequences. There’s a Lego in my bum which fits with the Lego in my chair and when I sit down to write, I hear the satisfying snap of the two pieces fitting together. I love words, dictionaries, thesauruses, sharp pencils, the smell of book ink and the delicious art of carving out sentences on clean white paper. I love to slip into another person’s skin and feel what it’s like to live another life. I love when characters come to me out of nowhere and make me cry so hard my mascara runs or laugh until my stomach hurts. I love the crazy fun and infinite possibility of storytelling. Religious Profanity - 12 Incidents: For Pete's sake, goodness' sake, cripe's sake, thank God, oh my God, Sweet Jesus, Jeez, chrissake, Gee

The only thing I found sad, but understandable, was how the mother wanted Natalie "fixed" rather than be helped. I don't think in 1935 autism was a thing anyone knew how to diagnose and these kids were sent to mental institutions or hidden away. But Mrs. Flanagan never gave up on Natalie regardless of the era, which I loved about her. She's a ride or die momma. Some reviewers didn't like the way in which Moose's (main character) autistic older sister is treated. Her parents keep trying to "cure" her. Twelve year old Moose is charged with watching her when not in school. Is that fair - no, but parents make do. The story takes place in the 1930's, and treatment/education of autistic children was limited. Moose makes friends with other kids on the island, including Piper, the warden's daughter. Piper devises all sorts of crazy schemes to keep them occupied, most of which involve breaking Rule Number 1: Don't talk to or about the prisoners. Autism, which is “a disease that affects the way [an individual’s] brain and sensory system work,” was not specifically identified until 1943. In 1935, the year in which the story takes place, children who exhibited its characteristic symptoms were given a variety of diagnoses and were frequently institutionalized. The term autism encompasses a wide range of manifestations. Natalie has idiosyncratic mannerisms, problems in relating to people, and the speech patterns of a preschooler but is nothing short of a prodigy when it comes to numerical calculations, so she would most likely be identified as autistic today. The best description of Natalie's condition is paradoxically provided in the book by a seven year old, Theresa Mattaman. Theresa says: The son asks the dad why he always does what the mother says (implying he’s not the head of the house). Parents get into a fight. A boy confronts his mom about her lying (the mother apologizes about her lying). “My mom’s done a million of things to help Natalie. The aluminum treatments, the voodoo dolls, UCLA, the psychiatrists, the Bible readings… What good were they?”One Third Nerd, my funniest novel yet, is due out in January 2019. My most famous novel, Al Capone Does My Shirts, garnered 20 awards, one of which was the Newbery Honor. The Tales of Alcatraz series has sold more than 2 million copies. What will probably be the last book in the series: Al Capone Throws Me a Curve is the best of the fifteen books I’ve written so far. Here's an awesome little history lesson on the infamous Al Capone, courtesy of none other than the FBI. He was one bad dude, that's for sure, though he met a pretty meager ending. Even as upset as I am right now, some part of me registers how cute she is.” A boy explains that a convict whistled at his sister. He is worried that this could be dangerous but the mother thinks it’s great. A boy tells another boy that a girl is googly-eyed over him. The mentally challenged girl disappeared for a few minutes and the brother finds her with a convict. It troubles him that he doesn’t know what happened. A friend says, “She’s not pregnant, right? … You do know about the birds and the bees, don’t you?” (she is not pregnant and as far as explained, nothing happened). In the 1930s, Matthew "Moose" Flanagan and his family move from Santa Monica to Alcatraz Island when his father takes a new job as an electrician and a guard in the well-known Alcatraz prison. Moose becomes friends with the warden's daughter, Piper, who regularly gets into trouble in her attempts to get money to get off of Alcatraz. Piper talks Moose into being part of her money-making schemes, like having inmates on the island do laundry for the kids at school. When the scheme fails and the Warden receives word of it, the children are punished and have to find a new way to spend their time. The Flanagans receive a call from the director of the Esther P. Marinoff School, who tells them that Natalie has not been able to adjust and that they must come for her immediately. The Flanagans are referred to Mrs. Kelly, a woman who might be able to work with Natalie. After consulting with Mrs. Kelly, Moose’s mom states that while she gives piano lessons in the city in the afternoons, Moose, in the interest of helping his sister “join the human race,” will be expected to take Natalie everywhere with him after school as if she were “a normal sister.” Moose pleads with his mother to let him have Mondays off so he can play baseball, but she tells him to ask his friends to move the games to Tuesdays, when she does not have lessons scheduled. To Moose’s surprise, Scout is able to reschedule the games. But Moose’s mother’s Monday lesson is switched to Tuesdays. When Moose tells Scout that he cannot play on Tuesdays now either, Scout gets angry and tells Moose, “Don’t expect to play on my team again.”

With a name like Al Capone Does My Shirts, I was settled in for a good light read, not. Not that it isn't an easy read but there is pathos in this story of Moose Flannagan. Moose is the brother of a severely challenged sister, Natalie, who cannot function in society and is sometimes entombed in her own frightening world to the exclusion of even her family. During February and March, Natalie does not have a single fit and “seems easier and more present.” At school, Moose is paired with Scout on a project, and their friendship resumes as if nothing ever happened to interrupt it. Scout has heard that when the prisoners on Alcatraz play baseball in the recreation yard, a ball will sometimes go over the wall, and the children who find it get to keep it. Scout wants Moose to get him a “convict baseball.” When Moose and Natalie arrive home, Mrs. Flanagan has a cake ready with the number ten on it, and the island children celebrate Natalie’s birthday. Afterward, Moose tells his mother that everyone can see that Natalie is not ten and that the only chance she has at Esther P. Marinoff is if they tell the truth. Moose’s mom objects, but for once his dad sides with him. Mr. Flanagan goes to Natalie and asks her how old she is, and she responds, “I am sixteen at 2:31 today.” Physical / Personality Traits: How does this character interact with others in the book? What challenges does this character face? If you think about it there are so many parts of the story that are heart-wrenching . . . the author does an amazing job of making emotional connections with each character. You can see the grief cycle in each member: anger, denial, bargaining, etc. I also loved how she showed Natalie, the sister, as a real person -- one of the few books I've read with a disabled character that really shows you the person inside.

Customer reviews

Okay, so the whole Al Capone element is obviously pretty compelling—who doesn't get excited to read about infamous gangsters?—but Al Capone Does My Shirts dives into much more important territory: namely, autism. Conversation Topics - 18 Incidents: Mentions rapists. “They even have a cr*pper in each tower so the guards don’t have to come down to take a leak.” “I had gone to take a leak…” A girl is mentally slow and has behavioral issues. She throws tantrums often to get her way (often times because she doesn’t know how to communicate). She is very good with numbers. (Her behavioral issues are throughout the entire book). Mentions that Capone “beats the traitors to death with a baseball bat.” I really enjoyed this kid's book. The premise is intriguing to me as I love history and old time crimes. Forget everything you think you know about moose, because Moose Flanagan is neither covered in fur, nor does he have ridiculously long legs. Instead, he's just a kid trying to make it in the 1930s… with an autistic sister… and Al Capone for a neighbor. He's living in a whole different kind of wilderness from his four-legged namesakes.

Twelve-year-old Moose moves to Alcatraz, from Santa Monica, California, with his autistic sister, mother, and father. His father gets a guard job on Alcatraz while his mother tries to get his sister, Natalie, into a "great" school helping young kids in her condition.Theresa Mattaman comes by the apartment their first morning there and takes Moose and Natalie on a short tour of the island. They run into Piper, the warden's daughter, who immediately asks uncomfortable questions about Natalie. Moose does not like it when people assume Natalie is stupid simply because she is different. Piper's questions just make Moose dislike her. The title! Imagine living on Alcatraz at the same time as Al Capone. Then you find out he washes, mends, and folds your clothes. What stories you could tell for the rest of your life!

Autism takes a tremendous toll on families. Beyond the need to arrange for basic custodial care corresponding to the severity of the affliction, parents must wade through myriad treatment options that are variable and largely unproven. The search for an effective intervention, as is shown by the experience of the Flanagan family, requires tremendous commitment and expense, and even today there are no guarantees for success. In the process, Moose is robbed of his childhood, and his mother is literally driven to the brink of insanity. Al Capone Does My Shirts is a historical fiction novel for young adults by the author Gennifer Choldenko. In the book, Moose Flanagan and his family move from Santa Monica to Alcatraz Island when his father takes a new job as an electrician and a guard in the well-known Alcatraz prison. The book was named a Newbery Honor selection, and in 2007 it received the California Young Reader Medal. It has three sequels: Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Al Capone Does My Homework, and Al Capone Throws Me a Curve. [1] [2] [3] Plot [ edit ] Autism hits really close to home for Gennifer Choldenko. Her sister Gina, whom she dedicated the book to, actually has autism herself. So Choldenko's depiction of Natalie, Moose's autistic sister, isn't just a throw away element of the plot; it's a major component to this story. The family in this story is pretty dysfunctional. The daughter is mentally challenged and this often leads to many fights between the parents and between the son and his parents as they try to cope. The mother lies often, for the sake of her daughter (which her son confronts her on, and later the father). The son's friend, who is throughout the book, is a chronic liar, constantly manipulating her "friends" and her parents to get what she wants. She likes doing things that are against the rules. The story concludes with Al Capone saving the day.Once she sent away for voodoo dolls and carefully followed the instructions some witch doctor in the West Indies wrote about how to relieve Natalie's condition. Another time she took Natalie to a church where everybody stood up and waved their arms. She read the Bible to her for two hours every day while Natalie sat staring at her right hands if there were a movie playing on her palm and she couldn't bear to pull herself away." (PG. 67) Like with book four, I found the descriptions of family life, life on Alcatraz, the historical setting, the characters, and the plot were quite engaging. People from middle grade through adults would have a good time with this one. I'm definitely going to keep going with catching up on the series. Natalie lives in her own world...sometimes it's a good world and sometimes it's a bad world. And sometimes she can get out and sometimes she can’t. This book really tugged at my heart strings. I couldn't help but feel for Moose's character as his mother forced him to mature sooner than he was ready for. For being so young, he was a huge help to Natalie and she seemed to improve when she was with him. Unfortunately, many parents focus too much on "fixing" their children instead of accepting and loving them for who they are. Because there wasn't a diagnosis for autism during the time period, I understand Moose's mother's frustration with Natalie's illness, but it was difficult to side with her on her actions. I wanted her to recognize Moose's participation in Natalie's improvement. I wanted her to show Moose her love. But it just didn't happen and I felt for him. Attitudes/Disobedience - 34 Incidents: A boy argues with his mom, saying it isn’t fair that his dad spends time with his sister but not him. A boy doesn’t like to get in trouble and says it’s a curse.