Girl in the Blue Coat

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Prologue-Chapter 2

Reading Check

1. What is the full name of Hanneke’s deceased boyfriend?

2. Hanneke encounters a soldier in Chapter 1. What two notable qualities about the soldier make her stop and stare?

3. What item does Hanneke deliver to Miss Akkermann in Chapter 1?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In the first 2 chapters of the book, what are some of the ways in which Hanneke shows that she is adept at manipulating others?

2. What tragic story does Mrs. Janssen tell Hanneke about her husband, Hendrick?

Paired Resource

“How Unique was the Secret Annex? People in hiding in the occupied Netherlands”

• Like Mirjam Roodveldt, the real-life historical figure of Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl hiding from Nazi persecution. Anne Frank’s hiding spot is known as the Secret Annex.
• This article from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam examines how common an experience it was for families to go into hiding, as Anne Frank and her family did.
• To get a better sense of the space itself, here is a video tour of the Secret Annex.
• How does Amsterdam’s occupied Nazi architecture – with its hidden chambers and secret rooms – help set the stage for the book’s message about The Difficulty of Interpretation?

Chapters 3-5

Reading Check

1. What was Hanneke’s father’s profession before the war?

2. Who is the particularly unpleasant client that Hanneke visits in Chapter 4, at the request of her boss, Mr. Kreuk?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How did the right side of Hanneke’s father’s body become paralyzed?

2. Why does Hanneke simply walk away from the Jewish Lyceum when the secretary asks her what business she has there?

Paired Resource

Jewish HBS and Jewish Lyceum Amsterdam

• The Jewish Lyceum was the segregated school for Jewish children in occupied Amsterdam.
• View photos of the Jewish Lyceum on the non-profit historical site “Traces of War,” to see what the building looks like today.

Chapters 6-8

Reading Check

1. What is the NSB?

2. What two friends of Ollie’s does Hanneke meet at the Municipal University of Amsterdam?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 8, Hanneke admits to Ollie that Bas had given her a letter just before he died. What did she do with this letter, and how does she feel about her actions?

Chapters 9-12

Reading Check

1. In a letter addressed to Elizabeth, Margaret writes about having a crush on a boy who they refer to by what initial?

2. What theater does Hanneke talk her way into in Chapter 10?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Hanneke mistakenly think Minas “delivery” is? What shocking news does Hanneke learn about Mina in general in Chapter 11?

“The Angels of Amsterdam: The Daring Rescue of 600 Children During WWII”

• In 1942, the resistance devised a plot to rescue Jewish children and smuggle them out of Amsterdam, where, if they stayed, they were bound to be sent to concentration camps.
• This video, as well as this article from the Anne Frank House, tells the story of the 600 children who were rescued and sent to the countryside as part of this plot.
• How might such a traumatic yet heroic event, like smuggling of children away from their parents to protect their lives, cause Transformations During Wartime? What effect might it have on the children and their beliefs about family? How about the parents?

Chapters 13-16

Reading Check

1. Mirjam had been writing the letters “M” and “T” in dust on what type of household item?

2. Who does Hanneke ask to have their father deliver a note to Amalia?

3. Hanneke’s mother, while on a cleaning tear, wants to use the extra paper in Hanneke’s room to do two things: First, to light fires, and second, to do what?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why must Judith and Mina go into hiding, as described in Chapter 15?

Paired Resource

“Index card from the Jewish Council card file in Amsterdam | The Arolsen Archives”

• The Jewish Council was – and is – a real-life organization, and one of the only groups recognized by the Nazis.
• The index card shown on the Arolsen Archive’s website is a primary document from the time period that shows how Nazis used the Jewish Council’s records to keep tabs on the community in the Netherlands.

Chapters 17-20

Reading Check

1. Where does Ollie tell Hanneke that Mirjam has been taken for deportation in Chapter17?

2. What name does Hanneke seeks to confirm actually belongs to Mirjam?

3. In addition to Mina, who else is Mrs. de Vries hiding at her place?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are some examples of the ways in which Hanneke realizes that things are not as they seem in Chapters 17-20?

Chapters 21-24

Reading Check

1. What object has Mina left in the baby carriage, at risk of being discovered by the Nazis?

2. In Chapter 22, what excuse does Hanneke give her parents for arriving home so late?

3. What is the shape of the sculpture behind which Ollie and Hanneke plan to take cover after rescuing Mirjam?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is some of the evidence of Hanneke’s change of heart in Chapter 21-24, showing that she’s returning to her “old” self, the one that Bas fell in love with?

2. What truth does Hanneke finally reveal to her parents in Chapter 24, and what does it demonstrate?

Chapters 25-28

Reading Check

1. What does Ollie reveal about himself to Hanneke in Chapter 25, when Hanneke goes to kiss him?

2. In the transport filled with Jewish passengers, Hanneke does what for the first time in two years since Bas’s death?

3. In Chapter 27, Hanneke gets word that Mirjam’s body is located where?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 28, as Hanneke dresses the girl’s body for her funeral, what does the note found in her pocket say? What is the significance of the note?

Chapters 29-32

Reading Check

1. What “normal” activity do Hanneke, Ollie, and Willem decide to engage in, even though it’s very cold?

2. When Hanneke and Mina examine the photo of the girl in the blue coat as she is being brought into the theater, what unusual thing do they notice?

3. Who is Tessa Koster?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 32, Christoffel reveals several truths to Hanneke that he had been concealing. What are some examples?

Chapters 33-34

Reading Check

1. Hanneke takes a train to what city, to find the “real” Mirjam?

2. Bas often told Hanneke that it was stupid to do what with a book?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Hanneke’s grief over Bas resolve itself in the closing pages of the novel?

Recommended Next Reads

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

• This seminal work gave voice to Anne Frank, the thirteen-year-old Jewish girl who hid with her family from Nazi persecution from 1942 to 1944. Though she tragically passed away from typhus in 1945 at a concentration camp, Anne’s remarkable diary has lived on for generations.
• Note these important parallels between Anne Frank and the character Mirjam: Mirjam is a young Jewish girl in Amsterdam, they both hid in secret chambers.
• Shared themes include Transformation During Wartime, The Difficulty of Interpretation, and Resistance.
• The Diary of a Young Girl on SuperSummary.com

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

• This 2018 novel is based on the true story of Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew and Holocaust survivor who was assigned at Auschwitz to be a tattooist. Tattooists were responsible for tattooing prisoners with identification numbers as they arrived at the camp.
• The novel focuses on the impossible love story between Lale and Gita, a young Jewish woman Lale meets while tattooing prisoners.
• Shared themes include The Conflict of Love and Friendship and Transformation During Wartime.
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz on SuperSummary.com