Scouts & Scalawags Growing Up in the City of Saints

Dennis Ganahl writes laugh out loud stories telling heart warming stories about Catholic boys who are expected to act like saints growing up in 1963. The boys don't have helicopter parents. Mickey and his friends must start school with a fearsome new teacher, and the Beatles start emerging in their rock 'n roll lives. Life was simpler and the boys go on a Boy Scout Jamboree, and have adventures to an abandoned farm, and Forest Park. This is happens during the time Martin Luther King Jr. makes his greatest speech, Musial retires and Kennedy is assassinated. The boys have adventures in school, on Boy Scout campouts, Trick or Treating, and putting on school plays. They celebrate their traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays while Mickey tries to figure out if he still believes in Santa.

The books in the City of Saints series have two Spotify music stations to play with popular music from the era. This book's chapters are named after Beatles' songs because the Beatles' are starting to take over the radio airwaves as Elvis starts fading.The boys lives have their own challenges too. Ganahl writes like Mark Twain, Jean Shepherd, Bill Bryson and Laura Ingalls-Wilder. The book’s characters are lovable, witty and their adventures are memorable and relatable.