Al Capone Does My Shirts
Gennifer Choldenko
 Moose Flanagan and his family have just moved to Alcatraz Island so that his father can take a job as a prison guard and his sister Natalie can go to a special school. Moose misses his old baseball team, and he struggles for recognition in his new school and meets a new girl. His sister, Natalie, who has autism, is rejected from the Esther P. Marinoff, School, crushing her parents' hopes for Natalie's education. Moose takes care of Natalie after school because his mother,Helen teaches music lessons, and he must find a way to deal with Natalie's screaming fits and constant needs (including lemon cake and buttons). Complicating Moose's life even more is Piper, the daughter of the prison warden. Piper lures Moose into her scheme to make money by collecting laundry from their classmates with the promise that Al Capone is, among the convicts assigned, to laundry duty on Alcatraz. Gradually, Moose learns to like life on Alcatraz, even finding ways to help Natalie fit in with the other children on the island; Moose makes a friend in school and finds a way to play baseball. and he is able to convince his mother that he really does have his sister's best interests in mind. After the Flanagans have tried repeatedly, and unsuccessfully to enroll Natalie in the Esther P. Marinoff School, Moose secretly writes a note to Al Capone, asking him to help Natalie. Piper slips the note into a letter to Al Capone. And a few weeks later, Natalie is accepted to a brand-new wing of the school for older autistic children, to the delight of the entire Flanagan family. Moose also helps out his sister with her obsession of collecting and counting buttons. Moose is a very loving and older brother. The last paragraph or so tells of how Moose got a note in his newly- washed shirt that says "done".