Al Capone does my shirts...

Al Capone does my shirts written by Gennifer Chelenco...

Mathew Flanagan (Moose) is forced, against his will, to move his family to Alcatrez, an island prison for felons too dangerous to be housed in normal prisons. His sister Natalie had autism, although this was not recognised in 1935 when the novel is set. Their mother Helen is desperatly trying to get help for Natalie who leans to heavily on Moose. Moose cares deeply for his sister and does his best to protect her from the crulety of others. Their father, Clam, has taken a job on the island as both an electrition and a sercurity guard, he is always tired from his two jobs and from trying to keep the peace between Moose and his mother.

The notorious gangster Al Capone and the other prisoners do the laundry for the staff and their families who live on the island. Moose quickly meets the children of the other guards and Piper the daughter of the island's warden. Piper is a tease and dispite her father's warning to Moose not to discus the prison or it's occupants, when he went to school on the mainland, she forces Moose to join her in running the laundry service where the other school children will pay to have their washing done by Al Capone.

This results in trouble for Moose, the worse being the disapointment he sees in his father's eyes. Despite everything being agaisnt Moose's happiness he manages to make friends with Scout, like Moose a baseball fan and Scout soon realises how difficult things are for Moose. When Natalie is turned away yet again from the school their mother thinks is bets for her, and will help her education the most. Moose, will help Piper and the other children enlists the help of Al Capone himself to have her accepted at the coveted school. And here the story ends although it is no clear just how Al Capone achieved this and whether or not Natalie benifited from the new school.