Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Eighteen-year-old Hanneke Bakker has determined to keep herself and her parents alive by being part of the black market during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. She avoids getting personally involved with her clients and focuses only on what will help her family survive.

But when a customer asks her to find a person rather than goods, she is reluctantly drawn into the Resistance. She starts to look at things differently when she sees the reality of the threat to others, including a Jewish friend and a gay friend.

Author and journalist Monica Hesse deftly demonstrates the way war can challenge people, bringing out both the best and the worst in us. This suspenseful young adult novel is part history, part mystery, and will keep readers hooked until the last page. Ages 14 and up. (Little, Brown)