Book Review – The Girl In The Blue Coat

With her words of courage and hope, written from an attic in the middle of an occupation, Anne Frank has inspired many authors to write books of fiction and non-fiction.

Add to her diary echoes from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Book Thief and you have another good Second World War-story. The Girl in the Blue Coat is about the search for a Jewish girl in Amsterdam in 1943 who disappeared from a secret room behind a pantry.

Hanneke lost her boyfriend in the beginning of the war and feels guilty about his death. She is dealing in black-market goods as a small act of rebellion. When one of her clients asks Hanneke to find the missing girl, she gets involved with a group of students who work in the Resistance. Will she find the girl before the Nazis do?

Especially now, just over seventy years later, it is important never to forget what happened. With this novel for young adults, about friendship, loss and love, Hesse has given the old story a new coat of fresh paint. Not only valuable for young teens, but also for adults.

Hesse is a reporter for the Washington Post.