The third (and probably final) book about Moose Flanagan is solid middle grade historical fiction. Moose and his Alcatraz community of guards, families, and convicts are still compelling--when you share an island with America's most famous criminals, there's bound to be some drama! In this book, we see Moose's dad has been promoted to Associate Warden. There's a mysterious fire. Moose tries to be everything to everyone (a character trait that was less and less endearing to me as the book progressed), including his friends Annie and Piper (the other two points of a mild tween love triangle) and his big sister Natalie (who most likely has undiagnosed autism), and of course his dad who is now a target because he's a warden. The bad guys, Mr. and Mrs. Trixle, were one-dimensional, that dimensional being terrible. I had more sympathy for the cons.

I enjoyed this book and would gladly recommend this series to pretty much any middle grade reader. I was expecting a bit more of a wow factor that I didn't get, but I'm not complaining. I hope Ms. Choldenko has lots more books left to write. She's good at it. ( )

A companion book to Choldenko’s other Alcatraz stories, this book continues to develop the relationships between siblings, friends, neighbors, and criminals. A group of kids work to solve a mystery that hits too close to home.

Thirteen year-old Moose and his family still live on Alcatraz, but his father has been promoted from guard to assistant warden, which puts a target on his back with the inmates and also enrages another guard who was passed over for the promotion. Moose's older sister, Natalie, is on break from her special needs school in San Francisco, which means that Moose is put in charge of her, a heavy responsibility that Moose carries on his shoulders twenty-four hours a day. When their apartment is nearly destroyed in a fire, Moose takes on that responsibility too and has to prove whether or not Natalie did it.
This is the third in the series of historical Alcatraz, and it's a smart and informative story. ( )

The third book in the Tales From Alcatraz series is a little different from the previous two. It is essentially a mystery novel. Moose's father has been promoted to assistant warden, and shortly afterwards, there is a fire in their apartment. The parents are in San Francisco that evening, and Moose just manages to get his autistic sister, Natalie, out of the house safely. Some are convinced that Natalie set the fire, and want to use it to get her off the island, but Moose and his friends, Annie, Jimmy, and Teresa know Natalie would never do that, so they try to solve the mystery of how the fire started.
One aspect of the mystery is too easy to figure out, but most of the elements were nice surprises in the end.
And for those who are reading all the books in order... it was nice to see Piper finally get what she deserves; Moose to finally recognize Annie as she deserves; and to see Natalie slowly growing and learning how to be around people despite her extreme level of autism. ( )

Delightful. Insightful. AND brought tears to my eyes. ( )