YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #15: Girl in the Blue Coat

Title: Girl in the Blue Coat

Author: Monica Hesse

Category: Historical Fiction


Hanneke lives in Amsterdam in 1943, surviving by smuggling black market goods to wealthy clients in order to provide for her mother and disabled father. She's good at what she does, though she has never taken the time to dig past the black market trade into the revolution she knows is happening under the noses of the German invaders now occupying her city. However, when one client asks Hanneke to find a teenage Jewish girl she was hiding, Hanneke's drive to solve the mystery leads her straight to the heart of the revolution, and to finally see the pain that is being caused all over Amsterdam.


I am very glad that I read this novel! I've read a great deal of WWII fiction, though none besides this one set in Amsterdam, and I found it interesting to get a peak into life in the city during German occupation. I found Hanneke to be a little self-centered at times, but I loved seeing her growth. I think this book would be a great tie-in to WWII units in social studies classes for teens, and give them a look at a less talked-about part of the war and shining light on the Dutch resistance movement. I think teens will relate to Hanneke, and root for her to succeed.

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