Book Review: Al Capone Does My Shirts
Rated by 4 members
What Parents Should Know
The publisher's website lists this as for ages 8 to adult,
but the strong sexual subtext makes you wonder what they were
thinking. Themes for middle schoolers to discuss include autism
and the prison system.
Common Sense Media Review
The ALA's Newbery Committee is often inscrutable at best,
but this has to be a new low. The Newbery Honor assures that
this book will be in every children's library, and many
classroom reading programs, very soon, and the publisher's age
recommendation of age 8 and up places it solidly in middle
elementary. Yet the strong sexual themes, though stated
obliquely, make one wonder what the publishers were thinking.
Even kids know better: one fourth grade girl handed it back to
her teacher with the comment, "I don't think I should be
reading this."
Aside from inappropriate content, readers may find the book just plain annoying. From the moment Piper is introduced -- pretty but headstrong and devious warden's daughter who acts perfect in front of adults -- any experienced reader will know exactly where this is going, and they'll be right. The only original touch is that she's not the preacher's daughter. Like the author's only previous (and far superior) book, Notes from a Liar and her Dog, nearly every character besides the hero is detestable, and most of them suddenly becoming warm and likable in the second half of the book, but that doesn't make it any better -- or more believable.
From the Book:
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 cooks 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.
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