Prison guard families had free laundry service on Alcatraz, compliments of the inmates. This historical tidbit explains the catchy title of Al Capone Does My Shirts by San Francisco Bay Area author Gennifer Choldenko. Set in the 1930s and narrated by twelve-year-old Moose Flanagan, this serious but high-spirited novel swings breathlessly from tense to tender, from suspenseful to sad to sweet. Choldenko easily fields the many subplots that revolve around Moose: being the new kid on the Rock (his father has just taken two jobs to make ends meet), baseball, school in San Francisco, "Little Rascals" escapades, living next door to cons, and babysitting for his older sister Natalie. (She suffers from autism, in 1935 a puzzling condition that went unnamed.) Choldenko's characters are dear and distinctive: There is the restless but responsible Moose, his hard-working father, his single-minded mother who lives to see Natalie cured, the warden's bratty daughter, and Natalie, a tangle of fixations and frustration. Then there is the island setting, drawn in grim and gripping detail to heighten a sense of isolation both internal and external. Heavy themes having to do with denial, lies, and love are leavened with humor in this memorable story of the heart.

Nancy Farmer's The Sea of Trolls is an engrossing departure from her successful science fiction. Woven with Norse mythology, history, humor and strong characters whose appearances often deceive, the book is set in the North Sea in the late eighth century. Farmer's vivid tale quickly draws us into the adventure quest of eleven year-old Jack and his younger sister, Lucy. Apprenticed to a bard who imparts his wisdom, Jack is warned by his mentor of imminent danger that will come from across the stormy seas. Soon the story turns heroic when Jack's Saxon village is marauded by Viking raiders called "berserkers," and he and Lucy are enslaved by Olaf One-Brow and his fierce female shipmate, Thorgil. Farmer fans can hope that she will craft more spellbinding tales from this time and place. Farmer won BABRA awards for children's literature in 1996 and 2002 for A Girl Named Disaster and The House of the Scorpion.

Launched in the Reptile House at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, this fanciful, rhymed tale tells the story of Molly, a librarian, who drives her bookmobile into the zoo. There she attracts a menagerie, and soon everyone wants a book to read. Molly finds books of all shapes and sizes to suit the animals, encouraging creatures who weren't previously readers to become hooked on a variety of literary materials. (There are Chinese books for the pandas and "waterproof books for the otter.") Molly also teaches the animals how to take care of books. Some of the animals love reading so much they start writing. "Imagine the hippo's enormous surprise when her memoir is given the Zoolitzer Prize." By the end of the story, the animals have developed such a love of literature, they build a "Zoobrary" and spend the rest of their time reading. Children will, too, after enjoying this delightful story.

One day, Queen Mother Rhythm's daughter is swept away by a hurricane from her side of the swamp and lands in the hands of Crooked Foster Mother. Crooked Foster Mother calls the new girl "Cinderella" and puts her to work cooking, cleaning, and sewing for her and her two evil daughters. On the other side of the swamp, the bereft Queen Mother Rhythm decides she needs a new lead singer for her Great Gospel Choir, so she and the Prince of Music audition singers. Everyone turns out to perform, including Crooked Foster Mother and her daughters, but no one's voice charms the judges. Then Cinderella, who has sneaked into the audition in disguise, begins to sing. Her voice is so beautiful, "as sweet as licorice," that the Prince knows he has found the new leader and Queen Mother Rhythm knows she has found her lost daughter. A melodic and lyrical retelling of Cinderella, this imaginative story is bound to capture the hearts of young readers.

Fact and fiction are gracefully blended in Hachiko, The True Story of a Loyal Dog by Orinda author Pamela Turner. While living near the Shibuya train station in Tokyo, Turner heard about the famous Akita who accompanied his master to and from the station every day for a year and then, after his master's death, returned there every day for a decade, hoping for his master's return. Today, a bronze statue stands at the meeting spot, and each April a festival also commemorates Hachiko's devotion. Now Turner joins the admiring crowd. Her narrator is the shy boy Kentaro who recalls Hachiko from his own vantage point as an eyewitness. Details of daily life in Tokyo between 1925 and 1935 are neatly incorporated into Kentaro's spare but sweet telling that stresses loyalty and love rather than loss. The book's sturdy square shape and subdued watercolors lend a feeling of permanence and poignancy to this modern tale of a worthy folk-hero.