I was trying to show someone how to use the audiobook feature at our library so, after selecting "historical fiction", I randomly selected this book. Initially I wondered if I'd made a mistake when the narrator said he liked something about as much as ... poison ivy(? not sure that was it, but that was the gist of it) on his privates. But that was the last off color remark and I was very soon really enjoying the book. I'd just finished reading "A Friend Like Henry" also about an autistic child, so while this story itself never diagnoses Moose's older sister (until the Epilogue when it explains that no one understood this malady in the 1930's), I recognized the behaviors and found the story very believable, and hope a brother really would be this loving and patient with such a sister. ( )

I read this book aloud to my class. I let them vote and averaged it... 3.68 stars!
Students were asked to give one or two sentence reviews:
"I like the book a lot"
"I would recommend this book because it was very exciting...I always wanted to find out what happened next ... It left me on the edge of my seat".
"I did not like it because I did not really understand it..."
"I loved all the characters. I thought it was interesting and it made me laugh sometimes"
"I didn't understand any of it, but keep trying Mrs. Pacinello!"

I enjoyed reading to my class. ( )

The title threw me off, I expected a book about a jerk kid(since those seem to be painfully popular) but instead this is a sweet story of a boy trying to take care of himself an his older sister who is autistic. ( )

The problem sometimes is that I fall so in love with a title, that the book cannot possibly compare. This is one of those books. It was good - a cute YA book about dealing with a sibling with severe autism. Alcatraz loosely features as a supporting character, mostly in cameo. ( )

Good YA novel with insights into autism and the history of Alcatraz prison. ( )