Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During WWII

The year is 1942. Charles Osgood is a nine-year-old living in Baltimore. His idols are Franklin Roosevelt and Babe Ruth, a hometown hero. Charlie spends his days delivering newspapers on his daily route, riding the trolley to the local amusement park, going to Orioles' baseball games, and playing with his younger sister, Mary Ann.

With great attention to detail, Osgood captures the texture of life in a very different era, before anyone had heard of penicillin or the atomic bomb. In his neig...