The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington is suitable for Young Adults, but … but … it should be read by anyone of any age.

Rose, Ella, Mina and Carla – in another life we might all have been friends together. But this was Birchwood.

THE RED RIBBON. Copyright © 2017 by Lucy Adlington. Reproduced by permission of the publisher,

Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

 

Ella, a kind and determined young girl  lives with her grandparents whom she adores. Her favourite pasttime is dress making with her grandmother – thank heavens, as things transpire.

Because, in the midst of world war two Ella, a mere fourteen years of age,   is snatched on her way home from school and  thrown into the place of horrors that is Birkenau . Leaving behind her life, her family and her freedom .

Adamant not to be a victim, Ella uses her skills  in order to survive and survive she determines she must.

Ella begins her first day at work in this appalling place by stepping into a world of beauty: silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients.

Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz, as readers may recognise, and every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death. Real life and death for this place is all about survival.

Increasingly Ella seeks refuge from reality, and from haunting memories, in her work and in the world of fashion and fabrics but again and again she is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive. Is her love of clothes and creativity nothing more than collaboration with her captors, or is it a means of staying alive? Will she fight for herself alone, or will she trust the importance of an ever-deepening friendship with Rose?

Adlington’s inspired concept of weaving a red ribbon  through the colours of couture gowns and camp mud is masterly  – a red ribbon, given to Ella as a symbol of hope,  which to my mind is the theme of this engrossing important novel.
A beautiful story of friendship, morality,  bravery and most of all, the importance of hope, in the face of the horrendous truth of Ella’ s situation .

You will be cheering on Ella, laughing with her and crying with her. You will want to cut down those that abuse her and embrace those who care for her .

“I would survive ’til the end of the war , then I would open my own dress shop and never see ugly things again”
The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com  in ebook hb, pb audio.