Name: Al Capone Shines My Shoes
ISBN: 9780803734609

Gennifer Choldenko

Moose Flanagan, who lives on Alcatraz along with his family and the families of the other prison guards, is frightened when he discovers that noted gangster Al Capone, a prisoner there, wants a favor in return for the help that he secretly gave Moose.

Al Capone Shines My Shoes

Sarah Sammis

Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko is the sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts. In the first book, Moose got a favor from Al Capone and now he's received a message: "Your turn."

While Natalie is living in her special school in San Francisco, Moose and his family continue to live and work on Alcatraz Island. Now that Moose is no longer the new guy, he has to find his place among the other children.

In the first book the plot was focused Moose and his relationship with his older sister, Natalie. Alcatraz, except for Al Capone intervening at the end, was secondary to the plot. With her (for the most part) out of the picture, strife amongst the children and personal dramas in each of the families is introduced instead. Instead of being able to build one, credible and compelling story about another of the Alcatraz families, the book is flooded with numerous competing dramas. It's too much to take in.

To further complicate things, Choldenko tosses in an escape attempt that both puts the children in danger and gives them a chance to save the day while the parents are too distracted to notice. While there were some thrilling scenes in this climax, the Scooby Doo wrap up had me shaking my head in disbelief.

jess

[review written 2011]

I read the prequel to Al Capone Shines My Shoes last time I visited Alcatraz, which was two years ago. But I found the sequel in my school library, and of course had to read it. This book was really good. As I said, I can’t compare it to the previous installment in the series, but it was still fantastic as a stand-alone book. 

Piper did seem a little bit bipolar in the book, though, and there were so many characters I got confused. But that might just be me. All in all, it was a fabulous read, quick as well, and I recommend it to any history-lovers. Capone does make more than one appearance in this book so if you’re interested in that…