FINISHED:

Choldenko, Gennifer. (2009). Al Capone shines my shoes. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[My ACL review:

After Al Capone does Moose a favor by getting his autistic sister into a special school, Moose receives a note in his laundry saying, “Your turn.” How could a 12-year old boy living on Alcatraz Island in 1935 with his prison guard father help a notorious con? And, should he even help Capone or will this keep him under Capone’s thumb forever? In this worthy follow up to Newbery Honor-winning Al Capone Does My Shirts (Putnam, 2004), Choldenko puts the focus firmly on family relations, friendship, and budding young love. Moose’s gang of friends on Alcatraz are all here again, this time around getting more fleshed out and involved, and the storyline surrounding Moose’s sister Natalie is deftly handled: Natalie, now at the Esther P. Marinoff School, has a firm teacher who gets her to become more socially engaged thus showing Moose, his family, and some of the island inhabitants who don’t understand Natalie that she is capable of much more than they thought. Choldenko, who lives in the Bay Area, includes an author’s note about autism in which she insightfully parallels being autistic with living in a prison, as well as living on an island by oneself, and a note which examines the reality versus the fiction of some of the novel’s events. (NOTE: a captioned map of Alcatraz is to be included in the final printing but was unavailable in the uncopyedited reader’s copy used for this review.) Readers who got caught up in Moose’s adventures on Alcatraz the first time around will love this well-paced sequel.]

STARTED:
Barnes, John. (2009). Tales of the Madman underground. New York: Viking.

[Reviewing for ACL. So far, it's quite good (it got MANY starred reviews...) but a bit over-the-top...]

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