Al Capone Does my Shirts is by far my favorite book read thus far in TE448. I felt a strong connection to the characters and I felt like I was right there with them. I thought this book was wonderfully written. However, I wonder about the role that Al Capone played in this book. Many know Al Capone for his criminal record and the things he has done wrong. But in this book it is told to the reader that Al Capone helps Moose and his family get Natalie in the Esther P. Marinoff School when she has been rejected twice already. I wonder why Al Capone was chosen to be the person who saves the day?
The book did bring up many historical facts about the prison and the prisoners that resided there. This is helpful for the reader because it gives them the background information that might be needed to know.
I thought that this book did a good job at not portraying the typical stereotypes that are usually given to persons with disabilities. There were a few words used; retarded and stupid, to describe Natalie by Piper, but this type of language was not repeated during the book. It is typical of a young person to use these types of words and not really understand the meaning behind some of the words that they use and that they can be considered offensive. I also thought the book did a good job at trying not to portray the typical stereotypes about the descriptions used for persons with disabilities. For example in the Tal article, she states, "Common stereotypes identified by Douglas Biklen and Robert Bogdan include portraying the disabled character as weak or pathetic, a burden to others, or incapable of participating fully in everyday life". This was interesting to me because certain parts of the text stood out to me that followed these certain stereotypes. However, sometimes the book portrayed the opposite side to this argument too. So all in all I think the book did a good job at addressing the subject matter.
I am not surprised that this book received the award that it did.
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Nice insights Meghan. While reading this book I noticed that the language used to describe Natalie was very basic. The author only used words like stupid and retarted. Children used these words to describe Natalie and they were not used after they got to know her. I had to wonder when I was reading the book how it would have been written differently if it was actually written in the time period that it took place in. I wonder if the terms used to describe Natalie would be much worse. I also wonder if the families side of the story would have been the same.
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