Girl On Blue
Ashlie Mealey
Hanneke Bakker is an 18 year old girl living in Amsterdam during the Second World War. When we first meet her she is on her way to make a delivery of black market goods for her employer, the local undertaker. She goes around delivering hard-to-get items to the wealthy people of Amsterdam. She is also mourning the loss of her boyfriend, Bas, who was killed in the short lived resistance of the Dutch Army before the they succumbed to the German invasion. This was two years previously and Hanneke feels a lot of guilt. She thinks that Bas, who joined up early, did so because he wanted to impress her.
Hanneke is stopped by a young German soldier and flirts her way out of trouble. She then calls on her next customer, Mrs Janssen, who has several sons. One has been killed and the others have fled to America and England. Her husband has also not been seen for a while. She asks Hanneke to do her a favour. She has been harbouring a young Jewish girl who was a friend of the family. Her husband had been hiding the family at his factory but they had been betrayed and all been killed, including her husband, except for the girl. The girl has since gone missing and Mrs Janssen wants Hanneke to find her, as she is the only family she has left.
What follows is a roller coaster of missed connections and double dealing. Hanneke is unwittingly drawn in to helping the resistance and is nearly caught on a few occasions. All the time she is carrying this guilt about Bas and we learn some of their back story. Hanneke is a strong character that makes you feel that, if you were in the same situation as her you would hopefully be as brave. The people of all occupied countries suffered such fear and hardship during the years that the Germans invaded their countries and people must have been constantly afraid of doing anything wrong. The rounding up of the Jews is poignantly portrayed, a boy cries because two girls in his class have been deported to concentration camps because they are Jewish. Hanneke has no hope of a future because she cannot see past her grief. Her relationship with her parents also changes significantly during the course of the book.
Why is this portrait so popular? Because it depicts an adorable child dressed in her Sunday best? As was the custom of the day, the young girl is portrayed as a small adult lady. That she is playing a role is betrayed only by her facial expression. Unfortunately, we know nothing about her identity or her family. Perhaps she resided in Haarlem, like the portraitist Verspronck.
Perhaps a silly question. But, do any names come to mind for a babe with big blue eyes and lots of blonde hair? She was born with a ton of crazy brown hair that stood straight up but its all going blonde now and I had white blonde hair when I was a kid.
[name_u]Sky[/name_u] / [name_u]Skye[/name_u] / [name_f]Skyla[/name_f]
[name_f]Patience[/name_f]
[name_f]Anna[/name_f]
[name_f]Ada[/name_f]
[name_f]Cadence[/name_f]
[name_f]Isla[/name_f]
[name_f]Claire[/name_f] / [name_u]Clare[/name_u]
[name_f]Ella[/name_f]
[name_u]Finley[/name_u]
[name_f]Felicity[/name_f]
[name_f]Hannah[/name_f]
[name_f]Kaitlin[/name_f]
[name_f]Lila[/name_f] / [name_f]Laila[/name_f] / [name_f]Lola[/name_f]
[name_f]Maeve[/name_f]
[name_f]Nora[/name_f]
[name_f]Gwyneth[/name_f] / [name_f]Gwen[/name_f] / [name_f]Gwendolyn[/name_f]
[name_f]Caroline[/name_f] or [name_f]Coraline[/name_f]
[name_f]Zoe[/name_f]
[name_f]Claire[/name_f]
[name_f]Lucy[/name_f]/[name_f]Lucille[/name_f]
[name_f]Clementine[/name_f]
[name_f]Dawn[/name_f]
[name_f]Clara[/name_f]
[name_f]Ellie[/name_f]
[name_f]Lillie[/name_f]
[name_f]Daisy[/name_f]
Vivien
[name_f]Emmeline[/name_f]
[name_f]Emily[/name_f]
[name_f]Charlotte[/name_f]
[name_f]Annalise[/name_f]
[name_f]Laurel[/name_f]
[name_f]Daphne[/name_f]
[name_f]Aurelia[/name_f]
[name_f]Victoire[/name_f]
[name_f]Helena[/name_f]
[name_f]Vasilisa[/name_f]
[name_f]Estella[/name_f]
[name_f]Annabelle[/name_f]
[name_f]Flora[/name_f]
[name_f]Lucy[/name_f]
[name_f]Ellie[/name_f]
[name_f]Hallie[/name_f]
[name_f]Liv[/name_f]
[name_f]Opal[/name_f]
[name_f]Millie[/name_f]
[name_f]Gwen[/name_f]
[name_f]Amelie[/name_f]
[name_f]Cleo[/name_f]
[name_f]Flavia[/name_f] - Meaning [name_u]Golden[/name_u], Blond
[name_f]Peta[/name_f] - Meaning [name_u]Golden[/name_u] eagle, rock or stone
[name_f]Xanthe[/name_f] - Meaning [name_u]Golden[/name_u], yellow
[name_f]Aurelia[/name_f] - Meaning the golden one
[name_f]Fiona[/name_f] - Meaning White, Fair
[name_f]Ingrid[/name_f] - Meaning Fair, beautiful
[name_f]Isolde[/name_f] - Meaning Ice ruler
[name_f]Freja[/name_f]/[name_f]Freya[/name_f] -was a major deity of Norse paganism: beautiful, blonde and blue-eyed, she was the goddess of love, beauty and fertility
[name_f]Aileen[/name_f], [name_f]Elaine[/name_f], [name_f]Elena[/name_f], [name_f]Helena[/name_f] - Meaning [name_u]Bright[/name_u], Shinning light
[name_f]Lux[/name_f]: [name_m]Light[/name_m]
[name_f]Nora[/name_f]: [name_m]Light[/name_m]
Blue is my favourite colour, as you can see by my braided blue hair. The Girl also has something blue on her head. She wears an headscarf because Vermeer painted her as a tronie (a character head) wearing exotic clothing. Ultramarine, the brilliant blue pigment that he used to paint the headscarf, also has an exotic back story.
Mining the lapis, carrying it down the mountain and transporting it to Europe was just the start of the extremely laborious process needed to make good ultramarine. The steps involved in extracting the pigment from the rock are reconstructed in this video. The rarity of the raw materials and this time-consuming extraction process meant that ultramarine was the most expensive pigment available: more valuable than gold.
In an earlier blog entry, I explained that the dark background around the Girl was originally a very dark green colour. On top of a black underlayer, Vermeer applied a green glaze containing weld (yellow) and indigo (dark blue).
This piece of historical fiction teaches kids about various aspects of World War II, particularly the Dutch Resistance and occupation. Readers will learn about the German occupation of Holland, the ill-fated Dutch war against the overwhelming power of the Germans, the laws that make anyone with means turn to the black market, the student resistance movement, and the fate of the Dutch Jews who were housed and deported from a famous Amsterdam theater.
The book illustrates the difference between moral laws and immoral laws and how it's sometimes necessary to break immoral laws to initiate change. It also depicts how people make unthinkable decisions during war and how it's those circumstances that reveal a person's true nature, whether you know it or not. Hanneke's role in the Resistance shows how even teens and individuals can make a huge difference to a collective effort and that some ideas and causes are worth sacrificing your safety to uphold.
Hanneke is outspoken and brave, and while she's confused about her role in the Resistance, she feels compelled to save a life despite not knowing the girl. Ollie does his best to protect Hanneke as well as his close friends of Resistance workers. Bas is a loving and funny boyfriend who feels it's his duty to fight the Germans even though he's scared to do so. People who might seem selfish are actually secret members of the underground Resistance.
Mentions of the war front and characters are killed by gunfire and bombs. Lots of tense and upsetting references to the deportations, concentration camps, and the fact that Nazis can immediately shoot to kill people for breaking certain laws (no arrests or courts necessary). A few characters are killed by Nazi gunfire, and hundreds of people are deported presumably to their deaths. Hanneke nearly vomits when she enters the theater (without working toilets) where Jews are kept awaiting deportation. People live under harrowing conditions.
A couple of passionate kisses that are recollections; another two kisses -- one to fake out the Germans and another that's cut off quickly. There's a brief mention of a forbidden gay relationship and a politically scandalous marriage between a Dutch young woman and a Nazi officer.
Parents need to know that Girl in the Blue Coat is a debut historical novel written by Washington Post writer Monica Hesse. The book details the story of a Dutch teen who delivers smuggled goods on her bicycle until one day she's asked to do something considerably more dangerous: find a missing Jewish girl (with a blue coat) who mysteriously disappeared from the house of the courageous woman hiding her. The violence includes harrowing scenes of trying to avoid detection by the Nazis and the deaths by gunshot that ensue because of a mission gone wrong. Characters are deported, and there are several close calls. Infrequently, there's a curse word in Dutch, and while there's a love story, there's more described about the feelings than the physical relationship, aside from a couple of kisses. There's a brief mention of a forbidden relationship and a politically scandalous marriage. Some adults smoke, and Hanneke recalls smoking cigarettes.
GIRL IN THE BLUE COAT is set in German-occupied 1943 Amsterdam, where "Aryan poster girl" Hanneke secretly smuggles goods on behalf of her undertaker boss. Haunted by memories of her boyfriend Bas, who died three years earlier fighting the Germans, Hanneke considers flirting with local Nazi enlisted men to conduct her black market deliveries -- her way of undermining the enemy. But when one of her customers, Mrs. Janssen, asks her not for coffee, cigarettes, or nylons but to help her find Mirjam, a missing Jewish 15-year-old girl (with the titular blue coat) who had been hiding in her house's secret cupboard, Hanneke has to consider whether she's up to the task. Petty smuggling is dangerous, but hiding (and looking for hidden) Jews is punishable by death. Complicating manners, Hanneke needs help from the underground Resistance, and the more she looks for the missing girl, the more dangerous the situation is for everyone involved.
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