Al Capone Does My Shirts

by Choldenko, Gennifer

• ISBN13: 9780399238611
• ISBN10: 0399238611
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-30
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Summary

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. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Gennifer Choldenko was the youngest in a family of four kids, where her nickname was "Snot-Nose." Her quirky sense of humor made its debut at the dinner table when Gennifer was a very little kid. After that, anything strange and funny became known as a Gennifer Joke. Her first novel, Notes from a Liar and Her Dog, was chosen as a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, was an IRA-CBC Children's Choice and won the California Book Award for children's books. In a starred review, School Library Journal wrote, "Choldenko has a wonderfully witty way with words. Her first-person narrative is humorous, tongue-in-cheek, and as irreverent as her independent heroine." Currently, Choldenko lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and their two children.

Table of Contents

PART ONE
1. DEVIL'S ISLAND	3	(4)
2. ERRAND BOY	7	(6)
3. TRICK MONKEY	13	(9)
4. AMERICAN LAUGH-NOSED BEET	22	(7)
5. MURDERERS DARN MY SOCKS	29	(6)
6. SUCKER	35	(7)
7. BIG FOR SEVENTH GRADE	42	(6)
8. PRISON GUY PLAYS BALL	48	(5)
9. NICE LITTLE CHURCH FOT	53	(7)
10. NOT READY	60	(4)
11. THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY	64	(7)
12. WHAT ABOUT THE ELECTRIC CHAIR?	71	(9)
13. ONE-WOMAN COMMANDO UNIT	80	(7)
14. AL CAPONE'S BASEBALL	87	(3)
15. LOOKING FOR SCARFACE	90	(8)
16. CAPONE WASHED YOUR SHIRTS	98	(5)
17. BASEBALL ON TUESDAY	103	(3)
18. NOT ON MY TEAM	106	(3)
19. DADDY'S LITTLE MISS	109	(8)
20. WARNING	117	(8)
PART TWO
21. IT NEVER RAINS ON MONDAY	125	(5)
22. AL CAPONE'S MAMA	130	(5)
23. SHE'S NOT CUTE	135	(5)
24. LIKE A REGULAR SISTER	140	(3)
25. MY GAP	143	(4)
26. CONVICT BASEBALL	147	(2)
27. IDIOT	149	(5)
28. TALL FOR HER AGE	154	(5)
29. CONVICT CHOIR BOY	159	(6)
30. EYE	165	(6)
31. MY DAD	171	(3)
32. THE BUTTON BOX	174	(5)
PART THREE
33. THE SUN AND THE MOON	179	(7)
34. HAPPY BIRTHDAY	186	(6)
35. THE TRUTH	192	(3)
36. WAITING	195	(4)
37. CARRIE KELLY	199	(6)
38. WHAT HAPPENED?	205	(7)
39. THE WARDEN	212	(3)
40. AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS	215	(2)
AUTHOR'S NOTE	217	(10)
NOTES	227