Al Capone and His Gang

Dead Famous

by Alan MacDonald, Philip Reeve (Illustrator)

Recounts the career of Chicago's notorious Prohibition-era gangster, and provides a tongue-in-cheek view of his times, life in the mob, the law enforcement effort that brought him down, prison conditions, and related matters.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Comics, Childrens, Crime

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My lifelong Al Capone fascination began in fifth grade with this book. Part biography, part comic book, part extended comedy routine, this is one of the strangest YA books ever written. As the story of Al Capone's life unfolds in surprisingly frank, barely censored detail, a cartoon caricature of Capone himself lurks forever in the margins of the pages, commenting on the information presented and cracking wise, often with quotes from the notorious celebrity criminal's actual press releases. Introduce your kid to the Robin Hood of Chicago, the Columbus of Crime, the right way, the proper way: give them this, and they'll thank you later.

[®aƒa€| · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is the shit. i like this book because is about on if my favorite gangster.also this book talk about his life n how he did when the cops is going afert him n shit like that he allways get away from them n when he goes to jail he allway got a excuse to dont get in but n the and of the book his plan didn't work so he stay in......every boy n girl should read this book

[Hayden]

al capone he was a drug lord and was a gang member who was very good at wht he did until he was caught and imprisoned. i find this story quite sad though for the way is brain disease took him over

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

ReRead 22 June 2021
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The Short of It: A classic from my childhood, always worth a reread.

Nyeah! This is a pretty great book, shee? I've tried to find other books in this series (Famous Dead People), but other than one on Henry the VIII, nada. Bupkis. Which is a shame, because this is a fun primer to the life of one of America's most notorious gangsters.

Not much else to explain, really. The cartoons are fun, and the overall tone is playful without being cloying. The only irksome part is the vocabulary at the end of each chapter. You're supposed to find the bolded/italicized words within the preceding chapter, but I swear there are some words in the glossary that never show up. A neat bonus, but seems more like a sloppy editing mistake than anything else.

Still, my sense of nostalgia keeps me from faulting this book too much. Between this and the Horrible History series, I learned more about history (and more weird stuff about history) than I ever did in school. Check it out!

[Liz DeBoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this book was really cool. I really liked how the book had a little area where it showed what certian words meant. For example, the book would say a bunch of gangster slang and then at the end of the chapter, if the gangster slang was bolded, the meaning would be at the last page of the chapter.

[Nile · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the gangster slang part and it had pretty good voice and it was funny, but how can you animate and make something so horrible into a comic that is fuuny? That's is what ruined it for me. It was good just too happy for a terrible thing.

[Evan R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is awesome

[Charles]

this was kind of a kid version of al capone and tells you all about al capone and what he did. he was a really bad person and that is why he ended up in the jail for the worst criminals, alcatraz.

[Thomas Krief Thomas Krief]

Was a awesome book

[Kelvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't even know who Al Capone was before I read this book...

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best- most interesting biography I have ever read.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and illuminating, and although aimed at the YA market is brutally honest in its description of Scarface's life and crimes.

[Hassan Maadarani · Rating 5 out of 5]

its a good book.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really interesting! I'll advise you to read this book.