With a glimpse of life on "the other side of the pond," Christel Decker Bresko shares vignettes, anecdotes, and short stories from her childhood during World War II and afterward as she sets out to explore the world. Growing up in her native Germany, Ms. Bresko relates hair-raising tales of the war as she and her family struggled to stay neutral during the conflict and her father was sent off to fight the war on the Russian front. Often going without many necessities and suffering through the usual childhood illnesses, she nevertheless retained. Her optimistic outlook for the future through...