Hidden Yellow Stars by Rebecca Connolly - OPTIONAL

Hidden Yellow Stars by Rebecca Connolly, 274 pages. Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2024. $27.

Language: PG (1 swear, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

The longer the Nazis occupy Belgium, the more of Andrée’s students go missing—Jewish students. Ida isn’t a practicing Jew, but the Germans don’t care and still make her life difficult—despite Ida’s marriage to a non-Jew. Taking on false names and risking everything, Andrée (21yo) and Ida (40yo) join the Belgian resistance and hide Jewish children, taking them from their families to keep them safe—they hope.

Connolly highlights the experiences of these two remarkable women doing dangerous work amidst Nazi occupation, and the suspense is palpable—by the end, I became as paranoid as those in the resistance. The story feels more like a collection of experiences than a typical novel with a plotline, but I was still invested in wanting to know what would happen next. Honestly, I still want a couple more chapters talking about what happened next when the Germans pulled out of Belgium and how reuniting families was handled. The stories told are heart-wrenching and heartwarming, with enough details to get the reality—and cruelty—of the Nazis across without being graphic.

Most of the characters are Belgian, Jewish, both, or German—and a couple are even Jewish Germans. The mature content rating is for mentions of alcohol and for nudity. The violence rating is for gun use, assault, and mentions of war, bombs, child abuse, gas chambers/ovens, and murder.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen