A review by librariandest
Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko

3.0

The third (and probably final) book about Moose Flanagan is solid middle grade historical fiction. Moose and his Alcatraz community of guards, families, and convicts are still compelling--when you share an island with America's most famous criminals, there's bound to be some drama! In this book, we see Moose's dad has been promoted to Associate Warden. There's a mysterious fire. Moose tries to be everything to everyone (a character trait that was less and less endearing to me as the book progressed), including his friends Annie and Piper (the other two points of a mild tween love triangle) and his big sister Natalie (who most likely has undiagnosed autism), and of course his dad who is now a target because he's a warden. The bad guys, Mr. and Mrs. Trixle, were one-dimensional, that dimensional being terrible. I had more sympathy for the cons.

I enjoyed this book and would gladly recommend this series to pretty much any middle grade reader. I was expecting a bit more of a wow factor that I didn't get, but I'm not complaining. I hope Ms. Choldenko has lots more books left to write. She's good at it.