Q 01/05

Which crime earned the real Al Capone of Al Capone Does My Shirts an eleven-year federal prison term?

A) Tax evasion

B) Bootlegging

C) Kidnapping

D) Racketeering

Answer · why

A) Tax evasion

Tax evasion brought Capone down in 1931, when a jury convicted him on five counts. He reached Alcatraz in August 1934, only months before Moose's fami...

Q 02/05

In Al Capone Does My Shirts, what sets off the metal detector when Al Capone's mother comes to visit?

A) Her hatpin

B) Her rosary

C) Her corset

D) Her brooch

Answer · why

C) Her corset

Her corset trips the alarm, and the search that follows rattles the old woman so badly that she sails back without seeing her son. Moose feels awful f...

Q 03/05

At the end of Al Capone Does My Shirts, what does Moose find tucked inside a freshly laundered shirt?

A) A signed photograph

B) A one-word note

C) A folded dollar bill

D) A train ticket

Answer · why

B) A one-word note

A one-word note is all Moose finds, the only reply he ever gets to his secret letter. The novel never says outright who wrote it.

Q 04/05

The real Al Capone of Al Capone Does My Shirts played which instrument in the Alcatraz prison band?

A) Trumpet

B) Clarinet

C) Accordion

D) Banjo

Answer · why

D) Banjo

Banjo was Capone's instrument in the Rock Islanders, a band of inmates that gave Sunday concerts for the other prisoners. Good behavior earned him the...

Q 05/05

In Al Capone Does My Shirts, what does Natalie Flanagan keep in a treasured box and endlessly rearrange?

A) Seashells

B) Coins

C) Buttons

D) Stamps

Answer · why

C) Buttons

Buttons are Natalie's prized possession, and she knows each one so well that she can tell at a glance which is missing. Taking the box away sets off h...