Walt Dierks illuminates the everyday lives and adventures of young kids coming of age in Brooklyn during World War II. The main goal of most of them: get out of the house. The street was where the action was. It could be a stickball game featuring a pink Spaldeen and a broomstick or hooking a ride on a passing trolley car. There were other diversions, some perfectly legal, some bordering or stepping over into forbidden territory. The war years offered an environment of added responsibility along with freedoms that came with them. Fathers and older brothers were, in many homes, off fighting the war. Older sisters and mothers were working in jobs previously filled by males. Kids, many of them preteens, were often required to perform household duties. The same group was asked to aid the war effort by voluntarily collecting scrap metal and other materials. Some governmentaEUR"sponsored activities were designed to keep them busy. The streets of Brooklyn were diverse. Dierks focuses on geography that today includes upscale Park Slope and the area surrounding Barclays Center. Between 1941 and 1945, the area housed many firstaEUR"generation children of European immigrants. Street gangs were common. Organized crime flourished. Kids learned, with required learning taking the form of street smarts: knowing when and what to do and say and where you were doing it. Being a Brooklyn Dodger fan, no matter how poorly they played, was essential.