Code Name Kingfisher: Chapters 18–26

by Liz Kessler
In this novel, a young Jewish girl struggling with her friendships finds her grandmother's diaries and learns about her grandmother and great-aunt's time in the Dutch resistance movement during WWII.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Prologue-Chapter 9, Chapters 10-17, Chapters 18-26, Chapters 27-35, Chapter 36-Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. engrossed
    giving or marked by complete attention to
    Luckily, this morning Mila was helping Auntie with some sewing, and they were both so engrossed I was able to get out of the house without too many questions.
  2. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    They closed her back in, covered up the trapdoor with a rug, and together they prepared to venture out in the night to find supplies.
  3. obstinate
    refusing to change one's mind or ways; difficult to convince
    The girl you last saw was angry and obstinate with nowhere to put her rage.
  4. surreptitiously
    in a secretive manner
    A handwritten note surreptitiously passed to me in the street; a meeting with a child; a walk through the city; a heart filled with the knowledge that I have helped to save another person’s life.
  5. convey
    serve as a means for expressing something
    If there was ever an image to convey the brutality and cruelty of the Nazis who parade round our country as if they own it, it’s this.
  6. brutality
    the trait of extreme cruelty
    If there was ever an image to convey the brutality and cruelty of the Nazis who parade round our country as if they own it, it’s this.
  7. ensure
    be careful or certain to do something
    The Nazis are like mean, hungry animals – and I am learning to ensure that I do not become their prey.
  8. gist
    the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work
    ‘It’s not a brilliant recording but you’ll get the gist of it.’
  9. conscription
    compulsory military service
    Hugo would be eighteen then, which meant he’d be old enough to be taken away to join the Arbeitseinsatz – the forced conscription where Dutch men are transported to Germany and made to work in labour camps and Nazi factories.
  10. propaganda
    information that is spread to promote some cause
    Everyone had to hand in their radios earlier this year, and the only newspapers we can legally read are filled with Nazi propaganda.
  11. compartmentalize
    keep separate; separate into isolated categories
    I’ve had enough near misses that I now truly understand why the knowledge is compartmentalized so much.
  12. cryptic
    having a puzzling terseness
    Under the time and place, just one rather cryptic sentence. It said:
    Collect police uniform from Panther. You are on watch. Stay in post and await next instructions.
  13. confiscate
    take temporary possession of a security by legal authority
    Since radios had been confiscated and the normal newspapers were now operated by the Germans, papers like these were the only way of reading about what was going on in our country from a point of view other than the Nazi one.
  14. point of view
    the perspective from which a story is told
    Since radios had been confiscated and the normal newspapers were now operated by the Germans, papers like these were the only way of reading about what was going on in our country from a point of view other than the Nazi one.
  15. curt
    brief and to the point
    Hannie gave a curt nod.
Created on Fri Dec 19 04:01:39 EST 2025 (updated Fri Jan 30 13:31:48 EST 2026)

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