Common Sense Note
The publisher's website lists this as for ages 8 to adult, but the strong sexual subtext makes you wonder what they were thinking. Themes for middle schoolers to discuss include autism and the prison system.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
The ALA's Newbery Committee is often inscrutable at best, but this has to be a new low. The Newbery Honor assures that this book will be in every children's library, and many classroom reading programs, very soon, and the publisher's age recommendation of age 8 and up places it solidly in middle elementary. Yet the strong sexual themes, though stated obliquely, make one wonder what the publishers were thinking. Even kids know better: one fourth grade girl handed it back to her teacher with the comment, "I don't think I should be reading this."
Aside from inappropriate content, readers may find the book just plain annoying. From the moment Piper is introduced -- pretty but headstrong and devious warden's daughter who acts perfect in front of adults -- any experienced reader will know exactly where this is going, and they'll be right. The only original touch is that she's not the preacher's daughter. Like the author's only previous (and far superior) book, Notes from a Liar and her Dog, nearly every character besides the hero is detestable, and most of them suddenly becoming warm and likable in the second half of the book, but that doesn't make it any better -- or more believable.
From the Book:
I'm not the only kid who lives here. There's my sister, Natalie, except she doesn't count. And there are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cooks or doctors or electricians for the prison like my dad does. Plus there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an innocent man or two, though I doubt it.
The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don't want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me. I came here because my mother said I had to.
Plot Summary:
Moose's father has taken a job as an electrician at Alcatraz and his family has moved to the island, all so that his autistic sister Natalie can go to a special school in San Francisco for disturbed children. On the island the children of the guards are dominated by Piper, the warden's daughter, a pretty and manipulative troublemaker whose father dotes on her, and whose schemes always manage to get others in trouble, never herself.
Natalie lasts 36 hours at the school before they kick her out, so Moose is saddled with taking care of her while his parents work. Moose is a good, responsible brother, but the burdens placed on him are sometimes too much to bear, and just trying to keep out of trouble with Piper around is a full-time occupation. Includes labeled photo of Alcatraz Island, and an Author's Note with footnotes.
Related Books:
Another Book by Gennifer Choldenko
Notes from a Liar and Her Dog
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Sexual ContentNothing explicit, but a surprising level of innuendo: Moose worries that Natalie may have had sex with a prisoner and that she might get pregnant, she takes her clothes off in front of him, talk about prisoners who haven't seen women in years and what they might do, etc. |
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ViolenceA fatal beating with a bat is referred to. |
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Social BehaviorPiper deliberately breaks rules with no thought of the consequences: Moose reluctantly goes along. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoMoose (age 12) drinks beer, given to him by his father as a way of bonding. |
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