Al Capone Rocks

This week I had my class read Al Capone Does My Shirts.  It is simply an awesome read for any young adult.  What personally makes the book fascinating to me is that the story revolves in idea around Al Capone, but he never makes an appearance in the story until the very last page.  I would suppose that the story could be classified as historical fiction over general fiction.  Gennifer Choldenko did an extensive amount of research on Alcatraz and the mythology surrounding Al Capone to draw the reader into a story that could have realistically been set at any prison, but is infinitely more fascinating because of the contexts of Alcatraz and Al Capone.

What I really find fascinating in the book is that I have to remember that back in 1935, there was no diagnosis for autism and that people who would become known as autistic were often treated as mentally deranged and placed in conditions equal to, if not worse then those of prisoners.  Being institutionalized was the same thing for both populations.

The ultimate reason I selected this book for my ELA content area literacy classes to read was not because it was historical fiction, but because of it's authentic portrayal of a family living with a family members autism.  This was a point in time when autistic individuals did not receive any type of support system from the government, yet the family still managed to survive, though it was not easy.  While inclusion is mandated by federal law for students that are high functioning on the autism spectrum, the reality is that this may not always happen and that many middle school and high school students will never know the benefits and pleasures of being friends with an individual with autism.  One of my best summers was right before I started teaching and I worked at a camp for adults with special needs.  The campers had a range of conditions, but my favorite campers were those in the autism spectrum because they were such unique and wonderful people when you spend time with them and got to know.  While every student in my classroom and my students future classroom will not have the opportunity to know an autistic individual, I think they should have that opportunity.