{"product_id":"tales-from-alcatrazisbn-9780142417188","title":"Tales from Alcatraz","description":"What do you do when your neighbors are a bunch of hit men, con men, and mad dog murderers? Well, if you're Moose Flanagan, you ask the most notorious convict of them all, Al Capone, for help. But when that convict comes through for youÑand then asks you for a favor in returnÑsuddenly it's a whole different ball game. Picking up where the NewberyÐHonor winning \u003ci\u003eAl Capone Does My Shirts\u003c\/i\u003e left off, this lively second romp featuring Moose, his friends, and some of Alcatraz's \"finest\" is just as satisfying as the first.\"Heart-stopping+heartrending+heartwarming.\" -\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Choldenko seamlessly blends laugh-out-loud humor with high drama in this fast-paced book.\" -\u003ci\u003eSacramento Bee\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A tender, engaging book that captures both the imagination and the heart.\" -\u003ci\u003eSan Jose Mercury News\u003c\/i\u003eGennifer Choldenko is the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling and Newbery Honor Award-winning author of ten children's books, including \u003ci\u003eNotes From a Liar and Her Dog\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIf a Tree Falls at Lunch Period\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNo Passengers Beyond this Point\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAl Capone Does My Shirts\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAl Capone Shines My Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eAl Capone Does My Homework\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe big question . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI don’t know for certain it was Capone who helped us. I mean the guy is locked up in a five-by-nine-foot cell. He’s not allowed to make a phone call or write a letter that isn’t censored word for word. It doesn’t seem possible he could have done anything to help us, even if he wanted to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e But out of desperation, I sent a letter asking Capone for help and Natalie got accepted. Then I got a note in the pocket of my newly laundered shirt. Done, it said.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e I haven’t told anyone about this. It’s something I try not to think about, but today, the day Nat’s finally leaving for school, I can’t keep my mind from going over the details again and again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The thing that stumps me is why. I never even met Al Capone . . . why would he help me?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOTHER BOOKS YOU MAY ENJOY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAl Capone Does My Homework Gennifer Choldenko\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAl Capone Does My Shirts Gennifer Choldenko\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Boy Who Saved Baseball John H. Ritter\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Cat Ate My Gymsuit Paula Danziger\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEmma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree Lauren Tarshis\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Long Way from Chicago Richard Peck\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMockingbird Kathryn Erskine\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNo Passengers Beyond This Point Gennifer Choldenko\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotes from a Liar and Her Dog Gennifer Choldenko\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the Wall John H. Ritter\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThings Not Seen Andrew Clements\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTravel Team Mike Lupica\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Year Down Yonder Richard Peck\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePUFFIN BOOKS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by the Penguin Group\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePenguin Group (USA) Inc.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e375 Hudson Street\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNew York, New York 10014, U.S.A.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUSA \/ Canada \/ UK \/ Ireland \/ Australia \/ New Zealand \/ India \/ South Africa \/ China\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePenguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor more information about the Penguin Group visit www.penguin.com\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst published in the United States of America by Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2009\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCopyright © Gennifer Choldenko, 2009\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE DIAL BOOKS EDITION AS FOLLOWS:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCholdenko, Gennifer, date.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAl Capone shines my shoes \/ Gennifer Choldenko.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ep. cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSummary: Moose Flanagan, who lives on Alcatraz 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. Includes bibliographical references.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN: 978-1-101-15578-3\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, California—Juvenile fiction. [1. United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, California—Fiction. 2. Alcatraz Island (Calif.)—History—20th century—Fiction. 3. Autism—Fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction.]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI. Title\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePZ7.C446265Ap 2009\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e[Fic]—dc22\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2009004157\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe big question\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eOther Books You May Enjoy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTitle Page\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCopyright\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDedication\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 1. - THE CREAM OF THE CRIMINAL CROP\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 2. - THE SECRET PASSAGEWAY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 3. - WILLY ONE ARM\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 4. - MURDERERS AND MADMEN\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 5. - AUNTIE’S REVENGE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 6. - WHAT CAPONE WANTS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 7. - ITCHY ALL OVER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 8. - ICEBOX FLY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 9. - THAT YOUR BOY, BOSS?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 10. - A DANGEROUS GAME\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 11. - A ROOMFUL OF WIND-UP TOYS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 12. - THE IRISH WAY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 13. - EVERYBODY LIKES MOOSE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 14. - DEAD TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 15. - MAE CAPONE IS A LOOKER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 16. - PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 17. - PIXIE GUARD #1\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 18. - KISSING A DEAD SQUID\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 19. - DRUNK IN THE GUARD TOWER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 20. - WELKUM HOM NADALEE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 21. - SHINY BUTTONS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 22. - TOILET’S STOPPED UP\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 23. - SEVEN FINGERS’S CANDY BARS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 24. - A DEAL WITH THE WARDEN’S DAUGHTER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 25. - THE BAD GUYS ARE LOCKED UP\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 26. - AL CAPONE IS THE WAITER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 27. - THROW, CATCH, THROW, CATCH\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 28. - PIG HALF IN THE POKE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 29. - A SWEET SPOT FOR MOOSE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 30. - WHY ARE BOYS SPECIAL?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 31. - THE WARDEN’S PARTY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 32. - THE GOOD PRISONER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 33. - OUTSIDE THE WARDEN’S HOUSE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 34. - THE BOSS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 35. - THE PIXIE JAILER PLAYGROUND\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 36. - KIDS ON THE ROCK\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 37. - THE YELLOW DRESS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAUTHOR’S NOTE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNOTES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAcknowledgements\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDiscussion Guide for Al Capone Shines My Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAn Excerpt from \u003c\/i\u003eAl Capone Does My Homework\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo my brother,  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGREY CATTELL JOHNSON,\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cbr\u003ewho is every bit as kind as Moose\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE CREAM OF THE CRIMINAL CROP\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMonday, August 5, 1935\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNothing is the way it’s supposed to be when you live on an island with a billion birds, a ton of bird crap, a few dozen rifles, machine guns, and automatics, and 278 of America’s worst criminals—“the cream of the criminal crop” as one of our felons likes to say. The convicts on Alcatraz are rotten to the core, crazy in the head, and as slippery as eels in axle grease.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd then there’s me. Moose Flanagan. I live on Alcatraz along with twenty-four other kids and one more on the way. My father works as a prison guard and an electrician in the cell house up top. I live where most of us “civilians” do, in 64 building, which is dockside on the east side of Alcatraz—a base hit from the mobster Al Capone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot many twelve-year-old boys can say that. Not many kids can say that when their toilet is stopped up, they get Seven Fingers, the ax murderer, to help them out, either. Even simple things are upside down and backwards here. Take getting my socks washed. Every Wednesday we put out our dirty laundry in big white bags marked with our name: FLANAGAN. Every Monday our clothes come back starched, pressed, folded, and smelling of soap and flour. They look like my mom washed them for me.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExcept she didn’t.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy laundry man is Alcatraz #85: Al Capone. He has help, of course. Machine Gun Kelly works right alongside him in the laundry along with thirty other no-name hit men, con men, mad dog murderers, and a handful of bank robbers too.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey do a good job washing the clothes for us and most everyone else on the island. But sometimes they do a little extra.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe cons don’t care for Officer Trixle, so his laundry doesn’t return the same way as everyone else’s. His shirts are missing buttons, underwear is stiff with starch or dyed pansy pink, pants are missing a cuff or the fly is sewn shut so the guy can’t even take a leak unless he pulls his pants down like a little girl.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI can’t say the cons are wrong about Officer Trixle. Darby Trixle is the kind of guy who only his wife likes—and not that much either. Last Saturday my best friend Jimmy Mattaman and I were looking for a barrel for Jimmy’s fly menagerie, and Janet Trixle, Darby’s seven-year-old daughter, just happened to see we were walking by the Black Mariah, the Alcatraz paddy wagon. That was all we were doing—\u003ci\u003ewalking by it\u003c\/i\u003e. But when Darby saw the Mariah had a flat tire, who do you think got the blame?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYours truly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt couldn’t have been Darby drove over a nail. Oh no. It had to have been us. We had to go with him to San Francisco and carry a new tire down Van Ness Avenue, to the ferry and up the switchback, to where the Mariah was parked up top. Darby wouldn’t even let us roll it on the road. Didn’t want it to get dirty. It’s a tire! Where does he think it usually goes?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy father wouldn’t help us with Darby either. “I know you  had nothing to do with that flat tire, but it won’t hurt you to give Darby a hand, Moose,” is what he said.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen I first moved here, I thought all the bad guys were on one side of the bars and all the good guys were on the other. But lately, I’ve begun to wonder if there isn’t at least one officer on the free side who ought to be locked up and maybe a convict who isn’t half as bad as he’s cracked up to be. I’m thinking about Al Capone—the most notorious gangster in America, the worst guy we have up top. How could it be that he did me a good turn?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt doesn’t make sense, does it? But Al Capone got my sister, Natalie, into a school called the Esther P. Marinoff where she’d been turned down twice already. It’s a boarding school for kids who have their wires crossed up. It’s a school and not a school . . . a place to make her normal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI don’t know for certain it was Capone who helped us. I mean the guy is locked up in a five-by-nine-foot cell. He’s not allowed to make a phone call or write a letter that isn’t censored word for word. It doesn’t seem possible he could have done anything to help us, even if he wanted to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut out of desperation, I sent a letter asking Capone for help and Natalie got accepted. Then I got a note in the pocket of my newly laundered shirt: \u003ci\u003eDone,\u003c\/i\u003e it said.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI haven’t told anyone about this. It’s something I try not to think about, but today, the day Nat’s finally leaving for school, I can’t keep my mind from going over the details again and again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe thing that stumps me is \u003ci\u003ewhy\u003c\/i\u003e. I never even met Al Capone . . . why would he help me?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI watch Nat as she sits on the living room floor going through our books one by one. She looks almost like a regular sixteen-year-old this morning, if her mouth wasn’t twitching right and right and right again and her shoulders were just down where they’re supposed to be. She opens a book, fans her face with the pages, then sets the book back on the shelf, just exactly as it was. She has been through one entire shelf this way. Now she’s working on the second.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNormally, my mom wouldn’t let her do this, but today she doesn’t want to take the chance of upsetting her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“You ready to go, Natalie?” my mother asks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNat moves faster. She fans the pages so quickly each book sounds like one quick \u003ci\u003effffrrrt\u003c\/i\u003e. All I hear is \u003ci\u003effffrrrt ffffrrrt ffffrrrt\u003c\/i\u003e  as I look out our front window down to the dock. Sure enough there’s Officer Trixle. He’s supposed to be off today, but Trixle can’t keep his nose out of our business. He’s almost as much trouble as Piper, the warden’s daughter—only not half as pretty. When you look like Piper does, people forgive a whole lot of things, but never mind about that. What I think about Piper is kind of embarrassing, to tell you the truth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy father comes out of the bathroom. The toilet is running again. The plumbing in 64 building is held together with bubble gum and last year’s oatmeal stuck hard and solid. But luckily for us, Seven Fingers, our very own felon plumber, fixes it for free. Not exactly for free actually. We pay him a chocolate bar every time, but no one is supposed to know that.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Time to go, Natalie,” my mom says.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNatalie is wearing a new yellow dress today. My mother cut the pattern, but the convicts in the tailor shop sewed it. The  cons did a pretty good job. Only the belt is bugging Nat. She pulls at it, weaving it in and out of the loops. In and out. In and out. Nat’s mouth puckers to one side. “Moose school. Natalie home,” she says.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Not today,” my mother says brightly. “Today is your big day. Today \u003ci\u003eyou’re\u003c\/i\u003e going to school.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eNot\u003c\/i\u003e today,” Nat tells her. “\u003ci\u003eNot\u003c\/i\u003e today. \u003ci\u003eNot\u003c\/i\u003e today.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI can’t help smiling at this. Natalie likes to repeat what you say and here she’s repeating my mom’s exact words with a change of inflection that makes them say what Natalie wants them to say and not at all what my mother meant. I love when Natalie outsmarts Mom this way. Sometimes Nat is smarter than we are. Other times, she doesn’t understand the first thing about anything. That’s the trouble with Natalie—you never know which way she’ll go.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first time Nat went to the Esther P. Marinoff School she pitched a fit the size of Oklahoma and they kicked her out, but I don’t think that will happen this time. She’s getting better in her own weird way. I used to say Nat’s like a human adding machine without the human part, but now she’s touching down human more days than not. And each time she does it feels as if the sun has come out after sixty straight days of rain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tell her, Moose. Tell her how wonderful it’s going to be,” my mother says.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tell her, Moose. Tell her how wonderful it’s going to be,” Nat repeats, picking up her button box and holding it tight against her chest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“You get to take your buttons, Nat. \u003ci\u003eMom\u003c\/i\u003e said,” I say.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI almost think I see her smile then—as much of a smile as  you ever get from Natalie anyway. She peeks inside her button box, checking to make sure all of her precious buttons are exactly where they’re supposed to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen we head down to the dock, my mom’s step is light on the stairs. She’s so sure that the Esther P. Marinoff will be the thing that fixes Natalie. My dad’s feet are moving to the beat of an Irish jig. Natalie is taking each step carefully and methodically as if she wants each foot to make a lasting impression on the stairs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen we get down to the water’s edge I see Trixle walking across the dock, bullhorn in hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eTwo hundred yards back please! All boats must stay two hundred yards off the shore!\u003c\/i\u003e” Officer Trixle booms through his bullhorn to a tour boat that has come too close to the island.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Warned him before, that one. Mac’ll put a bead on him. Fix ’em good,” Trixle tells my father.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNatalie hates loud noises. Once they shot a warning blast into the water when we were in our apartment and she curled up in a ball in the middle of the living room and stayed that way for the better part of the afternoon. Another time she didn’t seem to hear a gun go off ten feet away. It’s impossible to predict what Natalie will do.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Darby, hey Darby . . .” my father wheedles. “Please—not today, okay, buddy?”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Puffin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302325637349,"sku":"NP9780142417188","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780142417188_fe5234bc-6a1c-4aad-b6ea-25eb5deb367c.jpg?v=1730750426","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/tales-from-alcatrazisbn-9780142417188","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}