8 Alcatraz Books for Kids

My girls visited Alcatraz this past summer and it didn’t freak them out. I wondered if it would. PickyKidPix has been obsessed with psychics and mediums lately and watches Lisa Williams a little too much.

It could be that we live in an old house that is NOT haunted but there are certainly stories of houses in our neighborhood that could very well be cohabited with ghosts.

Still, it would be easy to get creeped out by seeing a jail cell in Alcatraz. Isn’t it exactly like a movie set of what a prison cell should look like? I guess it’s good that they visited in broad daylight!

Alcatraz seemed frozen in time on the day of its closing, March 21, 1963.

The breakfast menu for that day is preserved too. It doesn’t sound like prison food, don’t you think?! Or maybe this was a special “closing down Alcatraz” breakfast for the inmates?


The person to ask would be this guy: William Baker or prisoner #1259. He’s one of the last living inmates from Alcatraz and not coincidentally, has a book to describe his experience! My kids bought his book in order to get his signature.

Alcatraz-1259 by William G. Baker

Bill Baker writes in the forward, “Every word in this book is true to best of my memory of events and conversations that took place while I was serving time at Alcatraz and that I witnessed with my own eyes and heard with my own ears and felt with my own heart. …

This is a true account of that time in my life when I was a bad boy.

Warning — strong language in character with a prison environment. This account is told from the viewpoint of the Alcatraz convict.” [biograghy, for adults or curious young adults ages 14 and up]

I doubt my teens will read this book but they keep it as part of their Alcatraz memory. Mr. Baker was quite charming to them.

Alcatraz Book List for Kids

Unsolved Case Files: Jailbreak at Alcatraz: Frank Morris the Anglin Brothers’ Great Escape by Tom Sullivan

Review by Ms. Yingling Reads:

“In an interesting collage style, with typewriter font text, we get a good history of Alcatraz and its accommodations, as well as some brief accounts of earlier escapes. We then get all of the nitty-gritty about the innovative, hard work that Morris, the Anglins, and a man who didn’t manage to make the escape, Allan West, did in order to escape from the prison island. Really, it’s remarkable how they used their limited resources (magazines from the prison library!) to carve through their walls in undetectable ways, make boats and life jackets out of raincoats, and swim to the mainland in order to get away. There’s no proof that they did this, but information recently came to light that the Anglin brothers might have escaped and lived in Brazil. Readers who enjoy true crime podcasts or Denson’s FBI Files will be thrilled with this series.” [middle grade, ages 8 and up]

Breakout! Escape from Alcatraz by Lori Haskins

Set a year before Alcatraz closed down, this is the true story of three men’s daring and clever escape from Alcatraz. Three of the men were bank robbers, one was a car thief; all had tried to break out of prison before. In twenty-eight years, not one prisoner has escaped from Alcatraz alive. The waters are treacherous in the icy bay with dangerous currents that can pull a man under. Will these prisoners succeed? [early chapter book, ages 7 and up]

The Children of Alcatraz: Growing Up on the Rock by Claire Rudolf Murphy

Alcatraz was home to infamous criminals including Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and the Birdman of Alcatraz, but it was also home to the children of Native Americans, lighthouse keepers, military soldiers, and prison guards. Some of the interesting events include:

• Families were not to talk to anyone about life on Alcatraz; Warden Johnston strictly forbade the use of cameras and even banned toy guns for kids.
• Anastasia “Babe” Scott, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a soldier, jumped off Alcatraz and swam to San Francisco in 1933 which alarmed San Franciscans.
• On November 20, 1969, sixty-eight unarmed Native American adults and children landed on Alcatraz to protest two centuries of broken Indian treaties, neglect, and mistreatment by the U.S. government. Eddie Bratt, a Quecha-Aymara La Banda Indian from Peru, brought her own four children which include actor Benjamin Bratt and filmmaker Peter Bratt.

This nonfiction book pairs nicely with Gennifer Choldenko’s Al Capone series. [advanced picture book, ages 10 and up]

The Al Capone trilogy by Gennifer Choldenko is an excellent series for an advanced middle-grade reader. My daughter and her friends read the first one in 5th grade as part of a small group assigned reading. As such, they did not pursue the rest of the series. Their big gripe is that Al Capone is just a whisper of a mention in the book which greatly disappointed them.

I think the special needs character, Moose’s sister Natalie, and what life was like in  1935 for kids who have autism is especially poignant.

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Newbery Honor Book

“Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd, and surrounded by water. 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.” from the publisher [middle grade, ages 10 and up]

Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

“Moose and the Cons are about to get a lot closer in this much-anticipated sequel.

It’s 1935. Moose Flanagan lives on Alcatraz with his family, the other families of the guards, and a few hundred no-name hitmen, con men, mad dog murderers, and a handful of bank robbers too. And one of those cons has just done him a big favor.

You see, Moose has never met Al Capone, but a few weeks ago Moose wrote a letter to him asking him to use his influence to get his sister, Natalie, into a school she desperately needs in San Francisco. After Natalie got accepted, a note appeared in Moose’s freshly laundered shirt that said: Done.” from the publisher [middle grade, ages 10 and up]

Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko

“Alcatraz Island in the 1930s isn’t the most normal place to grow up, but it’s home for Moose Flanagan, his autistic sister, Natalie, and all the families of the guards. When Moose’s dad gets promoted to Associate Warden, despite being an unlikely candidate, it’s a big deal. But the cons have a point system for targeting prison employees, and his dad is now in serious danger. After a fire starts in Flanagan’s apartment, Natalie is blamed, and Moose bands with the other kids to track down the possible arsonist. Then Moose gets a cryptic note from the notorious Al Capone himself. Is Capone trying to protect Moose’s dad too? If Moose can’t figure out what Capone’s note means, it may be too late.” from the publisher [middle grade, ages 10 and up]

Al Capone Throws Me a Curve by Gennifer Choldenko

The fourth book in the Tales from Alcatraz series. “Moose Flanagan lives on a famous island in California: Alcatraz, home to some of the most dangerous prisoners in the United States in the 1930s. It’s the summer before he starts high school, and Moose is going to play a lot of baseball and win a spot on the high school team. But he still needs to watch his special older sister, Natalie–and then the warden asks Moose to look after his two-faced, danger-loving daughter, Piper.

In the cell house, there are rumors that the cons will strike, and that Moose’s father might step up to a new job. Moose is worried: What will this mean for their family, especially for Natalie, who’s had some scary run-ins with prisoners? Then the unthinkable happens: Natalie winds up someplace she should never, ever go. And Moose has to rescue her.” from the publisher [middle grade, ages 10 and up]

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My books:

 Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World

• Junior Library Guild Gold selection
• Massachusetts Book Award Long List
• Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
• Starred review from School Library Journal
• Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
• 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
• Green Earth Book Award Long List
• Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids

 Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me