Children of Alcatraz: Growing up on the Rock Book

Non fiction books are are not made up stories. They can take the forms of biographies, informational books, text books, kids books, graphic novels and many more. Children of Alcatraz: Growing up on the Rock is not just about kids growing up on Alcatraz, it is also about the history of the island. Alcatraz is a famous prison on an island off the coast of San Francisco. The book tells facts about Alcatraz from 1854 to present day. The book is organized in chronological order and each chapter is a about a different time in history. There were photographs of the kids, the prisoners, newspaper articles, and maps. at the end of the book there is a resources page, a timeline of events, and an index. Most of the book is about the kids lifestyle on the island. They were living on the island because usually their fathers worked at the prison. Some other mentionable people that they spoke about was Al Capone who was a gangster from Chicago and was arrested in the early thirty's and Frank Lee Morris who was put in jail for the first time at age thirteen. He was also one of three people to ever escape from Alcatraz. This book is interesting because whenever people think of Alcatraz they think about how the worst criminals in the world were put there but the most interesting thing about Alcatraz was that there was kids learning, playing, and even living there as well.

Something that I felt was interesting about this book was that I never knew that kids were living on the island. I think the reason that I kept wanting to read it was the fact that I could never picture myself living on an island full of the worst criminals in the world. Something that I thought could have been improved was that I wish the book could have had a little more information about the relationships between the kids living on the island and the prisoners. I thought that the fact that the book had about two to three photographs on each page made the book more interesting and understandable. It helped me visualize what it would look like to be on the island better than it would have if was just text on a page. The author seemed credible because she knew a lot about Alcatraz and just wanted to share the facts. Somebody who likes to read about historical non-fiction would find this book enjoyable. I would give this book four stars out of five stars because it was not only an interesting book but it kept me wanting to read more.






Murphy, Claire Rudolf. Children of Alcatraz: Growing up on the Rock. New York: Walker, 2006. Print.