07.08.07
Al Capone Does My Shirts…. Summer Reading Blog Assignment
Al Capone Does My Shirts is a historical fiction novel which depicts a boy’s struggles while giving a very accurate picture of life on Alcatraz Island and the characters who called it home in the late 1930s. I recommend this book to those of you who enjoy learning about history and have an interest in Al Capone and his likes. Because of its content (family matters and mobster characters), this novel would be a great choice for those of you who like to read and discuss books with your parents. Parents — you will enjoy this book.
If you’ve chosen to read Al Capone Does My Shirts for your summer reading project, use your summer reading blog directions and click on the comment button below to write your very own blog entry. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Farnum at cpmfarnum@cox.net.
Happy Summer!
July 11, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I recently finished a book for my reading project called,” Al Capone Does My Shirts” by Gennifer Choldenko. I enjoyed this book from start to finish. The author’s writing style really appealled to me, especially the comedy and action. I couldn’t put this book down, I just kept reading and reading. For instance, when Moose met Al Capone for the first time, he didn’t savor the experience very much. When Moose was in desperate need of Capone though, it made you think if Moose’s attitude would keep him from coming back.
One thing I would change about the book is the conflict. In the book, the conflict was getting Natalie, Moose’s sister, into Esther P. Marinoff School. Instead, the author should have inserted a action-filled conflict, like a heated arguement or fight, to keep you biting your fingernails until the end. The conflict stopped the smooth flow of this book, since everything else was exciting. It was the only part of this book that dissapointed me. Otherwise, I loved this book!
August 5, 2007 at 4:16 pm
“Al Capone Does My Shirts” was an amazing book! I love historical fiction books, and this was one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s hard to choose a favorite part but, since I have to, it would probably be when Natalie got accepted into the Esther P. Marinoff School. At the begining of the book I was a little dissapointed that she got kicked out but, when she started getting better I thought there might be hope.
When she didn’t pass the interview the second time I knew her luck would have to soon change. Then I was thrilled when Moose asked Al Capone for his help. I thought it was so sweet that Moose wanted to help his sister. Finally at the end of the book when Natalie told Moose the happy news I was jumping up and down with excitment!!! Natalie had finally been accepted into the school, and she would have a chance at getting better just like the other kids! I wish everybody could read this enlightning book!!!
August 9, 2007 at 10:06 pm
I chose” Al Capone Does My Shirts”. I chose this book because I thought it would be about gangsters. I did not like this book because it wasn’t about Al Capone or gangsters, but it was more about a boy named mathew and his family problems. I can’t recomend this book to anyone because i thought it was boring. If I renamed this book I would call it “My Life On Alcatraz.” This story is about a boy named Matthew who lives on Alcatraz. There are other families that live on Alcatraz. His sister Natile is different than other kids. Her family tried to get into a special school but they turned her down. I liked the part when Matthew told Piper to stick her head in a toilet. I thought it was funny when Mtthew called Alcatraz “A poo covered rock.” If I would change something I would change the plot. I would make it more about gangsters living in prison. My favorite part was when Matthew got his shirt back and it said done. I liked it because it was two days after Matthew sent a note to Capone asking for help he found a brown piece of paper thet said done. I did not like this book but I hope other kids do.
August 16, 2007 at 3:43 pm
“Al Capone Does My Shirts” was an outstanding book! I just recently learned about Al Capone while doing State Report, so it helped me understand the book much better. My first favorite line in this book was,”Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water.” I think Moose described Alcatraz in a very descriptive and funny way. I liked so much I memorized it. My second favorite line was when Del told Piper,” I have better things to do with my nickels.” It seems odd to me because in 1935 nickels could buy you a lot of items, but today you can’t buy much with a nickel. One line on pg.38 didn’t make much sense to me. It was the part when the Warden was listing all the rules to Moose. Rule number one: Women are not to wear bathing suits, shorts or any attire that is anything but completely modest. Even though the cons might not have seen a woman in years, I think women have the right to wear anything they want! I would definitly love to read another book written by Gennifer Choldenko.
August 27, 2007 at 7:19 pm
“Al Capone Does My Shirts,” was a terrific historical fiction book. I couldn’t stop reading this book because it was so amusing! My very favorite part of this book was when Piper asks Moose to join her laundry scheme. I thought the idea of selling laundry, laundered by Al Capone, was a ridiculous idea, but as I read on, I was suprised that many kids believed that their laundry was actually getting washed by the one, and only, Al Capone. Piper sure had a very creative mind! When kids started to ask Piper if their clothes were really washed by Al Capone, I think they were finally using some good common sense! When the Warden received a letter from Del’s mother explaing Piper’s laundry scheme, I felt that Piper deserved to be sent to her Grandma’s house in Nob Hill as a punishment. I bet it was way more peaceful on Alcatraz without Piper there! Also, I am so glad Moose didn’t get punished too severely, because he didn’t even have that much to do with the laundry scheme. I loved this book and I hope other kids do as well!
August 29, 2007 at 8:27 pm
“Al Capone Does My Shirts” was a one of the best books I’ve ever read. It was a book that taught many things. One of the many this it taught was manners. The way the book taught manners was very interesting. It was very rough but realistic way to teach it. Back in that era, anyone of authority, superiority, or importance was addressed with sir or ma’am. If a letter was was addressed, they would be addressed as mister or miss/misses.
Another about this book was that about half way into it I could not stop reading! The book was extremely hard to stop reading because it was so interesting. How often do you read a book about people looking for baseballs while trying not to be seen by guards of convicted felons, while at the same time working on sneaking laundry from school kids on the mainland to be washed by the same criminals including Al Capone?! Well anyways, this book will be highly recommended by me and many of my friends.
September 1, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I choose the book Al Capone Does My Shirts for my summer reading assignment. I thought it was very exciting. I enjoyed this book because of all the funny things the characters would say. My favorite part was when Piper convinced Moose to help her with a silly laundry scheme at school. They would tell the other students that for fifty cents they could have their laundry cleaned by Al Capone. I thought it was silly that kids actually believed her scheme, but as I kept reading on I realized kids believed her. That day she took home four bags of laundry, but instead of Al Capone washing them she did. The next morning the kids started questioning Piper and finally got it out of here that she washed the kids laundry not Al Capone. That is why this was my favorite part of the book.
September 1, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Al Capone Does my Shirts is a great book. There were some parts where I wanted to know what happened next, and some where I just wanted to put down the book and do something else. Some examples of the boring parts are in the intro, Natalie’s birthday party, and whenever he’s in class. During these parts I just wanted to do anything but read that. Other parts, however, just sucked me into the book and I couldn’t stop reading it. Most of the arguments were between Moose and Piper, and those were interesting to listen to, and the one with the Warden I just couldn’t stop reading. The author wrote this book so well I really felt angry at Piper for Moose. In conclusion, this is a very well written book that, no matter how boring some parts were I couldn’t put down.
September 3, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Gennifer Choldenko’s “Al Capone Does My Shirts,” is about a boy named Moose Flanagan who moved from Santa Monica to Alcatraz Island because his father was transferred as a guard at the prison. Moose’s sister Natalie Flanagan is a little bit unusual. Moose has many adventures with family, friend, convicts from the prison and especially Natalie. The Flanagan family tried their best for Natalie to get into an institution called Ester P. Marinoff. After a few rejections, she finally was accepted. This book is extraordinary from start to finish. For example, it is very suspenseful when Mosses and his friend Piper try to sell the convict’s laundry service. I wasn’t sure if or when they would get caught. If I were to create a new title, I would rename the book “Our Struggles on Alcatraz.” When the Flanagan’s first moved to Alcatraz, they had many struggles with Natalie getting into school, with Mosses settling into his new life on the island, and with money.
My favorite quote of the book is one of the last lines: “Life is amazing isn’t it? You can’t ever tell what will happen. No one knows until they go ahead and play the game.” I selected this quote because I think that it has a lot of meaning. You will never succeed if you don’t try and reach for your dreams. My favorite part of the book was when Moose and Piper told their classmates at school in San Francisco that for 5 cents a load, they could have their clothes laundered by the Alcatraz convicts. I think this was a good idea and was worth the risk they took.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading good adventures and big risks like the ones that Moose and his friend took. For example, they took risks when they went to go spy on the convicts, when Moose wrote a letter to Al Capone, and even when they all went to San Francisco to see Mrs. Capone come to Alcatraz. If I could change one thing about the story, I would change how Moose’s friend Jimmy only worked on his machines. In my opinion I think that he should do something more productive with his time.
I really enjoyed reading this book. In addition, I like how the author told the story. I thought that she did a great job explaining the environment and little details about the characters. When she described Mrs. Kelly, she said, “She’s a short ball of woman with a sturdy build and hair the color of plumbing pipes.” I hope that other kids that read this book like it as much as I did.
September 3, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I read the book “Al Capone Does My Shirts.” This book was very appealing to me because I have been to Alcatraz Island also known as “The Rock.” I toured the jail and actually went inside Al Capone’s cell. Also, recently I saw a movie named “Escape From Alcatraz” which gave me a good perspective about what I was reading. My favorite part of the book was when Moose saw Natalie and a convict sitting together. This was a very good move by the author because it left me sitting on the edge of my seat. The convict was not harmful to Natalie, he was nice to her. This suprised me because I always thought of covicts as dangerous people. It was also very shocking because the convict gave Natalie a baseball. I completely enjoyed this book and will continue to learn about the history of Alcatraz.
August 24, 2008 at 11:46 pm
This book was one of those stories where it’s really hard to put it down. I really liked Piper’s personality because she is so sneaky and breaks all the rules. Throughout the book she makes you wonder what she’s going to do next which is what makes this book so hard to resist. But the main reason why I enjoyed this book was how the storyline came together. Between trying to get Moose’s sister into a special school and trying to keep out of Piper’s schemes it just makes you want to keep reading. My favorite part of the book was the ending where Natalie finally got accepted into the school. In the story she had a lot of fits and her mom was so upset almost every day. It made glad that it would turn out just fine for Natalie and her mom. However the only thing that I disliked the book for was that there was too much yelling, mainly between Moose and Piper. Almost every time they saw each other Moose has to just yell at her for everything she does. It gets on my nerves a little. But other than that it was a great book and I think anyone who loves to read should read this book.
August 26, 2008 at 1:30 pm
In the book, “Al Capone Does My Shirts,” there were many funny quotes. One of my favorite quotes was, “They even have a crapper so the guards don’t have to come down and take a leak.” Another is, “Something about the way she does this makes me glance down to make sure my fly is buttoned.” There were also a lot of descriptive quotes. Two examples of this are, “it sounds like dozens of tiny mice are dying an ugly death,” and “it smells like an old lunch bag in there.” All of these quotes are from the main character, Matthew “Moose” Flanagan.
The book also had very interesting facts about some of the prisoners. The track record of the prisoners was “seventy-nine successful escapes, nineteen unsuccessful escapes, and twenty-four planned escapes that were never carried out,” all before they came to Alcatraz. The prisoners in Alcatraz are “the worst of the worst.” It’s full of “murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers, and maybe even an innocent man or two, though I doubt it.”
This book had some funny quotes and was kind of interesting, but I wouldn’t read it again. I didn’t really like it.
August 29, 2008 at 3:27 pm
For my book project i read the book “Al Capone Does My Shirts” By Gennifer Choldenko. “Al Capone Does My Shirts” is a great book for many reasons. I really enjoyed this book because it taught me a lot about Alcatraz, yet it was still amusing. An example from the book is, ” Today I moved to a twelve acre rock covered with cement and topped with bird turd.”
Since this book is such a great book I had lots of favorite parts. For instance, I liked the part where Natalie, Moose’s sister,laid on the floor naked. I liked this part because it was really funny!
Overall this was an excellent book and I never wanted to put it down. One example is that almost every chapter was suspenseful. “Al Capone Does My Shirts was a flawless book and I wouldn’t change anything.
August 30, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Pages were turning all throughout the summer while I was reading ” Al Capone Does My Shirts.” This was a fantastic book with a series of events that kept you interested in reading. Problems would appear out of the blue as you read about this young boy’s daily life on Alcatraz. It quickly became clear how difficult it was to live among criminals, especially with a mentally handicapped sister to watch over. The warden wasn’t exactly a cup of sunshine either. Overall, it was surviving the struggle through hardships that made it all ok in the end.
The book wasn’t all about adventure since there were also some funny parts. An example of a funny part was when Matthew Flanagan said, “They even have a crapper so the guards don’t have to come down and take a leak.” I would recommend this book for anyone who loves to read and enjoys history. My favorite part of the whole book was when Matthew and his friends were on the boat Mrs. Capone was supposed to be on. Piper was bold enough to sit next to her. She tried to get Mrs. Capone’s attention by saying hello, but it didn’t work, so she dropped her purse on Mrs. Capone’s foot on purpose. Then, she practically yells, “OH FORGIVE ME!” I liked this part because it was really funny and Piper gets so desperate that she ends up hurting Mrs. Capone, the person she was actually supposed to be nice to. In the end, there was only one thing that I had to say after reading this book, “Thank you, Gennifer Choldenko, for sharing you insight into life on Alcatraz!”
September 1, 2008 at 11:49 pm
For my summer reading book I read “Al Capone Does My Shirts”, by Gennifer Choldenko. The book started off slow. It was about a boy, his mom, his disabled sister, and his super busy dad who all moved to Alcatraz Island. But, by the middle of the book I started to get into it. By then, I couldn’t stop reading it.
Moose, the boy who is the main character, makes a lot of friends. There is Theresa, a girl who lives on the island and Jimmy, Theresa’s brother. He plays catch with Annie and he meets Piper, the warden’s daughter, and Scout, a boy from school. Moose loves to play ball with Scout and all the other boys but it just doesn’t work out with his plans. Then, there is Piper who leads him into a lot of trouble, like getting caught for selling clothes cleaned by Al Capone and trying to mail letters to Al Capone.
Moose’s sister, Natalie, who is mentally disabled, needs someone to watch her because the dad is always working and the mom has to teach piano. So, Moose is in charge of watching her. Natalie is trying to get into the Esther P. Marinoff School. She does not get accepted. This school is her last hope. Since Al Capone can do anything, and since Natalie had made friends with a con who had the number 105, Moose sent a lettetr to Al Capone asking him to help Natalie get into the school. A couple days later, Natalie got accepted. In Moose’s coat there is a brown note that is double folded, and underlined twice it says, “Done.”
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a book with a lot of adventures and surprises.
September 2, 2008 at 1:11 am
In a small island called alcatraz occupied by prizoners, and familys, a young boy named Moose lives in a house with his mom, dad, and 9 year old sister named Natalie. She had to go to school far away. Moose loved to play baseball. He met a girl named Piper, so he went to the school with her. Moose went through rough times. My favorite part was when Moose and his friends were on the boat that Mrs. Capone was supose to be on. This book described alot of alcatraz
I loved this book it was very interesting and it made me imagine the whole story in my head. Gennifer Choldenko made this story just like I was on Alcatraz like I was inside of Matthew’s shoes. It makes you think about how much thought that Gennifer Choldenko put in the story. This has been one of my favorite books.
September 4, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I couldn’t stop reading this book. In fact, I read it so fast that I finished it in two days. The author described the personalities in such great detail and on every page so that I really could feel what they were experiencing on the island. For example, Moose had to be quiet about his sister (who was mentally challenged) in order to remain on the island. He had to become very sneaky and always pretend to be someone he wasn’t while he was on the island in order to protect his sister. I also loved reading about the day by day adventures that Moose and his friend experienced. The author’s use of daily journal entries made it more real and exciting to read. One of my favorite journal entries was when Moose and his frineds sneak into the prisoner’s recreation yard to watch the inmates play baseball in the hopes that Moose can catch a baseball. Piper and the other boys had been bragging about their successes in catching a ball. Because of this peer pressure, Moose broke the rules and entered the yard. Another entry that I really liked reading about was when Piper tried to convince Moose to start a prisoner laundry service in their school. This was funny because Moose was always sneaking the school laundry into his home laundry without being caught.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure and sneakiness.