Remember an eon ago when I talked about buying a handful of books at a Scholastic Book Fair for 50 cents? I totally expected them to suck. I did. And the first one lived up to my expectations. (Review for that coming up at the end of the second quarter.) And then I hit upon Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennfier Choldenko.
I loved this book. It’s the second in her series on the children who lived on Alcatraz when it was a federal penitentiary. I haven’t read the first but had no trouble following along this one although there are some plot arcs that clearly carried over from book one. Gennifer blends it all well so I understood.
What do you do when Al Capone did you a favor and now he wants one in return? If you’re twelve year old Moose you get so nervous you have hives. And since the favor was really for his sister, he has to figure out way to keep Capone happy. I felt for these kids. In the first page Gennifer made me like Moose and hate the antagonist, who honestly isn’t Capone. LOL.
I’ve said before I don’t usually read YA but it seems that just isn’t true anymore. And I’m enjoying it. Maybe if I had read more than Agatha Christie when I was a kid, I would have known what I was missing.
℘℘℘℘ – 4 pages. A solidly pleasant and entertaining read. Gennifer captures clearly what I remember as the turmoil of age 12. And I couldn’t fault her historical research. Bonus.
T.A. Henry 