Book review: Al Capone Does My Shirts

Author:Gennifer Choldenko
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 12 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction, autism
Year of publication:2004

Some books are of their times. This book takes place at Alcatraz prison in the 1930s but is very much a reflection of contemporary culture.

The first-person narrator is a boy whose family moves to Alcatraz so that his sister may apply to a school for autistic children near San Francisco.

The characters' understanding of the disease and of each other is no doubt very anachronistic.

My daughter enjoyed the local color and the family relationships seemed truthful, for a child of today at least.

-- Emily Berk

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