tween-quake: San Francisco Bay Area

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Al Capone Shines My Shoes (Book Trailer)

I’m pleased that the Newberry Award-Winning author Gennifer Choldenko continued the story of Matthew ‘Moose’ Flanagan, his friends, and his family on Alcatraz. The story picks just where Al Capone Does My Shirts ended, and now the favor Moose asked of Al Capone has to be repaid. Thoroughly frustrated and fearing for his family’s sanity, Moose had asked Al Capone to help get his sister Natalie into a special school for children with disabilities. “Your turn,” the note attached to his shirt simply said. So, Moose struggles to do as Capone asks, angering guards, the warden, and finally getting his friends and their father into trouble. As he puts his father’s job in jeopardy by doing as Capone asks, Moose becomes wiser and grows to understand the effect he has on people- particularly girls. From the tense beginning to the chilling conclusion, the themes of honesty, loyalty, and friendship reverberate instilling moral lessons without begin overly preachy. Overall, it is the trust and honesty of friends that prevails when individuals make mistakes.

If readers haven’t been entertained by the previous story in the series, I would suggest reading Al Capone Does My Shirt first and rushing to your nearest library to put a copy of Choldenko’s newest books, No Passengers Beyond This Point, on hold. This work of historical fiction can stand on it’s own, but definitely holds more meaning as a sequel to the first book where familiar characters continue to develop and change.

Choldenko, G. (2009). Al Capone Shines my Shoes. New York: Puffin Books . 304 pages. ISBN: 978-0-142-41718-8.

Ages 9-12.

Dragonwings

Prolific writer and Newberry Honor winner, Laurence Yep created this classic tale in the early 1970’s. Moon Shadow Lee is an 8 year old by who travels from his native China to live with his father in San Francisco’s Chinatown district in the early 1900’s. He loves and respects his father, believes him to be clever and brave. When he moves to San Francisco, he and his father live with family as his father works for the family laundry business, but soon they branch out on their own so his father, Windrider, can start a repair business. As he endures the mockery of others, and the hardships of being an impoverished immigrant, Moon Shadow stands by his father in his pursuit to build a machine that can fly. At the heart of the story lies the love and respect of a child for his father, the rich traditions of Chinese culture, and how tenacity and perseverance pay off. This is a story for dreamers, who yearn to read about different cultures or perhaps hear about their own culture from another perspective. I would recommend this selection to older tweens 10 and up who are fans of the historical fiction. Although this selection is part of the Golden Mountain Chronicles it stands strongly as a story on its own.

Yep, L. (1975). Dragonwings. New York: Harper & Row. 248 pages. ISBN: 978-0-064-40085-5.

Ages 9-12