Al Capone Throws Me a Curve
Tales from Alcatraz #4
by Gennifer Choldenko

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade historical fiction

Thirteen-year-old Moose Flanagan’s dad is the assistant-warden on the island of Alcatraz, but even living amongst some of the most infamous criminals in the world isn’t enough to get Moose and his friend Scout onto the high school baseball team as freshmen. He has all summer to try to figure out how to please the team’s captain, but it won’t be easy. Meanwhile, there are rumors that the convicts are going to strike and that Moose’s father might become even more of a target.

The series finishes strong, with another compelling story and the title coming into play in a way I didn’t expect. I was glad that the awkward teen-romance triangle between Moose, Piper, and Annie was non-existent in this book, because Annie was gone for the summer. Though on the other hand, Scout was a bit annoying to me this time with his insistence on Moose pandering to the captain of the baseball team in ways that would be dangerous at best. There was one particular aspect in this book involving a signed baseball that felt a little weak—the baseball was a factual item, but its use in the story didn’t really work for me.

The climax of this book is full of excitement. As I’ve said before, one of the things I love about this series is that it doesn’t pander to the young audience for which it’s intended. The stakes are high, the danger is real (not just physical danger, but the danger of Moose’s dad losing his job during the Great Depression), and Moose has to make some truly impossible choices. He is a true hero in many ways in this book, and I really liked how everything came out in the end. I also found it interesting that Al Capone, who has been sort of idolized by most of the kids throughout the series, is brought down off his pedestal, at least for Moose, in this book. And I again enjoyed reading the author’s notes at the end of this book. I applaud Choldenko’s research and inclusion of history in this series. I recommend the whole series (but start at the beginning!) for pre-teens and young teens, as well as any adults who enjoy younger-audience books.

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