Lucy Adlington crafts a gripping and unique perspective on Holocaust survival by centering the story around a lesser-known aspect of Auschwitz: the prisoners who worked as seamstresses for the Nazi elite. The novel balances the darkness of its setting with moments of humanity and hope. While many Holocaust novels focus on direct horrors, The Red Ribbon highlights survival through skill, shedding light on a real historical sewing workshop within Auschwitz. Certain sections move quickly, and some emotional beats—particularly regarding character relationships—could have been developed further. The Red Ribbon is a poignant and thought-provoking novel that presents a unique angle on Holocaust literature. While it doesn’t delve as deeply into historical realism as some adult novels, it provides an important and accessible story of survival, friendship, and the power of hope.

"The Red Ribbon" by Lucy Adlington is an extraordinary and powerful historical fiction novel that will take young readers on an emotional journey through one of history's darkest periods. Set in a concentration camp during World War II, this book is a compelling and eye-opening tale of courage, friendship, and the strength of the human spirit.

The story revolves around Ella, a young girl who finds herself trapped in the horrifying reality of a concentration camp. Through Ella's eyes, young readers are exposed to the atrocities and challenges faced by prisoners during this tumultuous time. Despite the bleakness of her circumstances, Ella clings to hope, finding solace in her friendships and the simple red ribbon she cherishes dearly.

Lucy Adlington's writing is both evocative and sensitive, transporting young readers to a harrowing period in history while maintaining an age-appropriate tone. The author masterfully captures the emotional depth of the characters and the heart-wrenching experiences they endure, creating a profound impact on young minds.

Ella is a brave and resilient protagonist who serves as an inspiration to young readers. Her determination to survive and her unwavering spirit in the face of unimaginable hardships will resonate with young audiences, teaching them the importance of courage and compassion even in the darkest times.

"The Red Ribbon" explores the significance of friendship amidst adversity, as Ella forms a bond with her fellow prisoners that brings comfort and strength. This emphasis on camaraderie and empathy reminds young readers of the power of compassion and the value of standing together in times of need.

The book also delves into themes of sacrifice, resilience, and the importance of preserving one's identity and dignity even in the most trying circumstances. The red ribbon, a symbol of hope and individuality, serves as a powerful motif throughout the story, leaving a lasting impression on young readers.

While "The Red Ribbon" is an emotionally intense read, it is an essential and eye-opening book that sheds light on a dark period of history. It encourages young readers to understand the importance of remembering the past and promoting peace and understanding in the world.

“The Red Ribbon” is a poignant and thought-provoking novel that will leave a lasting impact on young readers. With its rich storytelling, powerful themes, and memorable characters, this book provides a valuable opportunity for children to learn about history, empathy, and the resilience of the human spirit. It is a must-read for young readers seeking a meaningful and engaging tale that will stay with them long after the final page.

The Red Ribbon is the story of the friendship between two teenage girls who worked in the dress shop in the harrowing camp of Aushwitz-Birkinau. Obviously this covers a particularly painful part of history but I think this was an interesting look at a different kind of "prisoner" and their life in these camps. This was not based on a true story so there were bits that seemed a bit unrealistic at times. But overall, I enjoyed Ella and Rose relationship. Overall, the book presents the reader with moral questions regarding the lengths one will go to survive in an accessible way for a younger audience.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this would have been something I would love as it is a historical fiction novel but i just did not connect with the story. I did not really like the main character Ella as I found her to 2-d and not with enough about her to make her interesting. This had moments that I liked but this was a bit bland and I found the plot weak and not very good when compared to similar stories.

I loved The Red Ribbon for its honesty, bravery, and surprisingly? Its beauty. Adlington is a talented writer, giving readers a vivid and heartbreaking insight into life at Birchwood. The novel is well-researched and executed, with the historical atrocities of the Holocaust rendered accurately with the lens of a teenage prisoner who has (and deserves) dreams bigger than Birchwood.

In the first few chapters, two main things struck me about Adlington's writing. First, the significance of colors: Ella sees Birchwood with a dressmaker's eyes, so even in the greyest and muddiest places, she sees shining colors and inspiration for her dream dress shop. I loved how each chapter was linked to a color, which would then be pointed out in thoughtful comparisons and linked thematically to the plot. Secondly, the descriptions of food were particularly striking, and I could tell that the intent was to emphasize the emptiness of Birchwood in contrast to the saturation of Ella's former life. A girl's sharp nose "could've cut cheese." Brown pattern paper, like the kind sausages came in, "plump sausages with bits of chopped onion." A green coat becomes an apple, from the tree in Ella's yard. Baked into "apple crumble flecked with caramelized sugar, flaky pastry apple turnovers, and even apple cider." I was not expecting the novel to make me hungry!

I fell in love with Ella and Rose instantly. Ella's dreams of being a designer and owning a dress shop seemed far-fetched, but I wanted so badly for her to have them. I wished with all my heart that she would find her grandparents again, and I loved her memories of sewing and designing with her grandmother in their house. Her strength and willing to do whatever it takes to survive is a testament to the horrors that went on inside Birchwood.

And Rose. Rose, with her stories and countess palace and the kindest heart in the darkest place. I cried when she went to the Hospital and smiled every time she shared her rations with someone. I loved her friendship with Ella, and how the two girls stuck up for each other even through their incredible obstacles.

Everything about this novel was stellar. I would recommend it thoroughly to every reader. 5/5 stars.

Looking for your next can't-put-it-down book? If historical fiction's your thing, this one from Lucy Adlington is perfect.
Presenting yet another take on WWII fiction, this tale takes us into the world of a young seamstress caught up in a Nazi concentration camp. It has tragedy and triumph, hope and despair, friendship and loneliness.
Fans of WWII era stories, grab this five-star read!

I enjoyed this book. It's a novel about two friends struggling to survive one of the worst periods in history the best they can. It's an eye opening book and it made me sad for a bit. But I enjoyed reading about the friendship in this novel and how big a role it played in these girls lives. We are spared the details of what happens in Auschwitz because this is a YA novel, but you feel the impact it makes on these characters. This novel is very well written, the characters are engaging, and the author is sensitive to the issues of Auschwitz. Highly recommend this great novel about friendship!

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book courtesy of Candlewick Press via NetGalley.

Release Date: September 11, 2018

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Genre: Teens & YA

Rating: 5 / 5

Storyline (from the editor):

“Three weeks after being detained on her way home from school, fourteen-year-old Ella finds herself in the Upper Tailoring Studio, a sewing workshop inside a Nazi concentration camp. There, two dozen skeletal women toil over stolen sewing machines. They are the seamstresses of Birchwood, stitching couture dresses for a perilous client list: wives of the camp’s Nazi overseers and the female SS officers who make prisoners’ lives miserable. It is a workshop where stylish designs or careless stitches can mean life or death. And it is where Ella meets Rose. As thoughtful and resilient as the dressmakers themselves, Rose and Ella’s story is one of courage, desperation, and hope — hope as delicate and as strong as silk, as vibrant as a red ribbon in a sea of gray.”

The Good:

This book surprised me in a great way. I began reading the book without re-reading the books description, which turned out to be the perfect way to capture my attention. The book starts in a way that could have led itself to be some sort of dystopian novel with “Hunger Games” vibes, then BAM! We learn that this is Auschwitz (also known as Birchwood) during the Holocaust. Real life. Real history. Wow. I got goosebumps when it was revealed, and it made me so glad I had no idea what the book was about going into it. I was hooked and loved the rest of this novel. Ella is tough, and full of hope while Rose is delicate and full of fantasies, but together the darkness of the horror around them begins to lift slightly. Together, these friends navigate the harshness of a concentration camp towards the end of WWII.

The Bad:

I can’t think of anything bad to say about this book. Historical Fiction isn’t my main genre, but this book read easily and kept my interest immensely.

The Bottom Line:

A fierce novel of friendship born of the most horrific place in our history.

This was a good read. I liked that the author showed a different aspect to Auschwitz that I wasn't aware of. The prisoners making clothes for the guards and their wives. I also found it interesting reading about the department store where the items taken from prisoners when they arrived were sold to guards.

In comparison to other books within this genre, I did not feel an emotional connection to the main character. I did like the friendship shown between Ella and Rose although I do feel that it could have been developed more so that when they were separated there would have been more of an impact.

I liked that this story offered something a bit different from other stories within this genre. In places, the story moved a little bit slow and it didn't have a lasting impact on me in the way that other WW2 have had. Whilst the ending was happy I am not sure how realistic that is.

Overall I thought that this was a good read. I didn't have the emotional reaction that I was expecting and I don't think that this book will have a lasting impact on me but I enjoyed it whilst I was reading it. I think if you are looking to get into historical fiction this may be a good place to start

The Red Ribbon" is an excellent ya novel covering some of the lesser known aspects of life in concentration camps. It also presents several types of "prisoners" not often covered. The brutality is not withheld and the harsh truth of what it took to survive is on full display. My heart was broken several times throughout, and I feel like I learned quite a bit. Highly recommended.

"The Red Ribbon" is an excellent ya novel covering some of the lesser known aspects of life in concentration camps. It also presents several types of "prisoners" not often covered. The brutality is not withheld and the harsh truth of what it took to survive is on full display. My heart was broken several times throughout, and I feel like I learned quite a bit. Highly recommended.

This historical novel sent in Auschwitz, Ella is a 14 year old Jewish girl who was taken and sent to work in a dress shop as a seamstress for her captors. She must do all she can to survive in this volatile world. The pages of this book are beautiful but do not take away the theme of this story and the harrowing things that the people in Auschwitz went through everyday, in this awful time of history. This book brings to light things that we never hear about in history lessons. I never knew they had women and girls making dresses for the officers wives and dignitaries. A lovely book.

I think WWII books are very important to read and I don't find myself reading them often even though I have a few on my shelves. This one, unfortunately, was just okay for me. I read it in two months (well, I started it in October then put it down for two months before finishing it) and that's because this story didn't interest me all that much. I was a little bored to be honest. There were moments I liked reading it but most of the time I was reading it because I had to.

I did find the story to be unrealistic at times (and happier than what might have really occurred). This book wasn't as heartbreaking as you might expect from a WWII book but I guess it's meant to be read by younger readers? Also, I wished the one sentence where the FMC said she might kiss her best friend would have been developed but that didn't happen. However, I did like the friendship they had.

(I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my review)

Definitely admirable in its telling of a horror camp, told in a way that feels true and authentic, while still keeping it appropriate for younger readers (the mature MG crowd). That being said, it was a little dull for me. I lacked a connection to the characters and it felt like it took forever to get anywhere. I did honestly think the characters are well-written, as far as their decisions and motivations, because pondering what humans choose in tough nigh impossible situations, it's all incredibly believable. Obviously, I wanted everybody safe and free, but if they hadn't made it, I probably wouldn't have cared too much, which sounds terrible, but it particularly accounts for the low rating. I simply wasn't invested.

This book was so good!! I really enjoyed reading it. I loved the story as well as the setting that the story takes place. Thank you!

I was drawn to this book more than I expected to be having read as many Holocaust set books as I have. However, this story, of Ella and her efforts to survive and remain herself, was quite lovely and engaging. throughout most of the book. It is more hopeful than many of these books are and that is both its strength and weakness. Overall, the book presents the reader with moral questions regarding the lengths one will go to survive in an accessible way for a younger audience. Ella's counterpoints - Marta and Rose - present alternative approaches and it is clear that none of the answers in these situations can be good ones. Ella is a believable protagonist, one who has been thrust into a situation that forces her to adapt each day. The story is paced well and the writing is lovely. Adlington made the choice to consistently refer to Auschwitz-Birkenau as Birchwood instead, along with several other euphemisms. While on the one hand this seems to go against the historical research that has been put into the novel, it also allows for the reader to initially access the story on its own terms rather than immediately through the lens of Holocaust history. The reveal of specific details throughout the story make the historical reality crystal clear, however. There is an included author's note on the historical realities that I found more than a bit patronizing in tone and content, though perhaps necessary for a younger reader who may not have learned about the Holocaust yet. Ultimately, this concludes in a way that is a bit too emotionally satisfying rather than likely or as meaningful as it might have been.

Ella was taken to Auschwitz while she was on her way home from school. She has been separated from her grandparents and can only count on herself to survive. Ella is an accomplished dress maker, thanks to her grandmother. She uses this talent to get a job at the camp's dress shop, which creates clothing solely for the officer's wives and other women in power. While the job helps to keep her incrementally safe from being sent to the gas chambers, sewing keeps Ella alive and hopeful for the future. Ella makes friends with posh Rose and several other seamstresses, who find ways to help each other even in these torturous times.

I am in a weird place with this book. I appreciate the exploration of seamstresses in the concentration camps. I was not previously familiar with the aspect of the history. I don't know if the tone and the wording truly matched the horror of the times, especially by translating the camps name to Birchwood (I get that this is the literal translate, but...), which makes the concentration camp sound like a summer camp, instead of the death camp it was. I thought the relationship between Ella and Rose was borderline (maybe not so borderline) LGBTQ, which was an interesting layer. I positively responded the concept of hope, as it relates to survival, but I don't necessarily know that this will be one of the books I will be recommending first to the kids at my library.

The Red Ribbon is about Ella's determination to survive the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Ella fights for a spot in the Upper Tailoring Studio where her sewing skills win her a position making dresses for the officers' wives and female guards.

I really enjoyed Lucy Adlington's addition to the World War II genre. The sewing room led to some fascinating and horrifying circumstances for Ella, and it's not something I've seen in other WWII narratives. The contrast between the beautiful clothes that Ella makes and the circumstances of her daily life were jarring and very effective.

I also really loved Ella's character. She struggles with what it means to be a friend and a good human in these horrific circumstances and finds that her humanity makes her stronger.

This is a gorgeous tale of a talented young seamstress struggling each day to survive in Auschwitz. The characters are beautifully developed, especially our two mains, Rose and Ella. The plot carried along at a clip, while pausing occasionally to focus on a truly beautiful moment in an otherwise gray tale. Whether it was a story from Rose or a dress description from Ella, these little spots of color and life created small positive moments that not only brightened your experience with the story, but gave the characters something to live for as well. The ending was very touching and I think showed a reflection of humanity that is often missing from Holocaust stories. Finally, the subtle hints at an LGBTQIA story were masterfully handled. It's definitely there, but it doesn't dominate the overall plot. I took a star off for Hendrik, bc his storyline felt forced and didn't fit the arc well at all. Otherwise, this was a joy to read.

Ella is a 14-year-old young woman who lands in Auschwitz-Birkenau after being picked up on the way home from school. She lies about her age to be placed in the Upper Tailoring Studio; a dressmaking studio within the camp, where the skeletal women Ella calls "Stripeys", referring to the prisoners' striped uniforms, make dresses for their clients: the wives and girlfriends of the SS officers, and the female SS officers themselves. Ella has dreams of being a dressmaker and finds herself more than up to the task, but her friend Rose points out that there's a fine line between doing what's necessary for survival and collaborating with the enemy, no matter where one's true passion lies.

The Red Ribbon looks at some big issues taking place during the Holocaust: there really was a dressmaking studio, where prisoners repurposed clothing taken from the arriving prisoners to make clothing for the SS wives, girlfriends, and officers. There were prisoners who acted as "prominents": they oversaw other inmates and could be almost as cruel and demanding as their jailers. Ella's talent for dressmaking gains her notice from one SS officer, an 18-year-old named Carla, who leaves her small gifts for trade and invites her to share birthday cake with her one time and viciously beats her another, calling her inhuman. Rose acts as Ella's conscience, seeing through the illusion Ella desperately wants to create: an illusion where her grandmother is still safe at home and waiting to hear from her; an illusion where her dressmaking talent is valued, and the Auschwitz "Department Store" is a kind of thrift store and not a pile of stolen goods from stolen lives. Ella's desperation to hone her dressmaking talent borders on collaboration, but she refuses to acknowledge it until a heartbreaking moment when her beloved grandmother's sewing machine lands in front of her in the Studio. It smashes Ella's naivete, but she and Rose bolster one another, and the women around them as they pray and wait for liberation.

There are some devastating moments in this story, and Lucy Adlington's words weave beautiful, terrible visions. Prisoners tell each other to "Look down at your sewing, not up at the chimneys". One prisoner is so desperate for news about her children that she asks about an SS officer's son: "Tell us about the little boy - how old? My son was three when they took us."

The book equally captures desperation and determination; hope and despair. It's a good add where collections need YA fiction that discusses The Holocaust. Display and booktalk with Antonio Iturbe's The Librarian of Auschwitz, The Diary of Anne Frank and John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (I've seen this title in both Juvenile and YA collections); Elie Wiesel's Night and Tatiana de Rosnay's Sarah's Key, and Art Spiegelman's Maus. The Jewish Book Council has an excellent list of Holocaust-related YA books. There is a creative writing resource available for free download from The Hay Festival.