Al Capone Does My Shirts (Tales from Alcatraz)

Description

A Newbery Honor Book

Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. I m not the only kid who lives here. There s my sister, Natalie, except she doesn t count. And there are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cook s or doctors or electricians for the prison, like my dad does. Plus, there are a ton 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. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don t want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you re me. I came here because my mother said I had to.


"Choldenko s pacing is exquisite. . . . [A] great read."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review