The Ribbon Leaf
The Ribbon Leaf
One Monday morning our teacher, Frau Farber, tells us we need to find our new seats. She has written our names on little pieces of paper, and drawn a colourful picture on each one, a flower or bee or bird. Mine is at the front near the window beside a tall girl with long blonde braids, but I have always sat beside Edie, ever since Grade 1. Mama even took a picture of me and Edie on our first day, holding our shiny Zuckertüten, the huge cones filled with candy, chocolate and pencils. We were wearing the matching white dresses that Edie’s papa made for us, with the yellow trim. Now, Edie is way in the back, sitting with Rosa and Johanna and Hedda. None of them are her friends. Poor Edie looks miserable and doesn’t wave back when I wave at her.
The day is long and dull. At the end I take my name card and run to show Edie the colourful butterfly beside my name. She holds up hers – a bright yellow star with six points. I tell her it’s nice but she just shrugs. Everyone in her row has the same star and I wouldn’t like it either if everyone around me had the same picture. Maybe that’s why Edie doesn’t talk the whole way home.
I think of asking her if she wants to stop in the park, where we sometimes sit to watch the birds, but then we see the signs. Neither of us moves or even breathes as we read them: Nicht für Juden. And on the bench across the pathway: Nicht fur Juden – one bench for Jews and one not for Jews – one for Edie and one for me. Silently, we move on.
When we get to Edie’s house, a tall apartment building a block before my house, she doesn’t ask me to come up. She just whispers goodbye, like her voice has been swallowed.
It is 1938, and the storm clouds of World War II are beginning to gather on the horizon in Germany. The events of Kristallnacht shatter the windows of Jewish shops and synagogues. Sabine and Edie have always been the best of friends, but political events mean that they must separate. While Sabine is able to stay in her small town in the south of Germany, Edie, her mother and her aunt and uncle head to Canada, seeking refuge with a cousin in Montreal. As the long years of the war intervene, the girls lose contact but never lose hope that they might be able to resume their strong friendship.
Sabine is able to make difficult decisions and find strength as the war wears on. Readers follow her as, despite her feelings and beliefs, she is forced to help the war effort. Edie must find strength in different ways in a new country where there is hope for her if only she can overcome the many challenges she faces. In this coming-of-age story, both young women learn to be self-sufficient and capable in the face of incredible difficulties. Both must negotiate family relationships which change and become more and more demanding. As well, both are teens and so tentatively enter into romances which find them learning more about their sexual orientation. Sabine and Edie both have times of great excitement and joy, but these are tempered with anxiety and loss. Edie wonders if she’ll ever be reunited with her father. Sabine fears that her acts of kindness and generosity may be found out by the Nazis, resulting in dire consequences. And the two girls wonder if their paths, once so intertwined, will ever cross again.
Lori Weber puts her readers into the thick of World War II from two very different perspectives. Sabine's life is ruled by Nazi propaganda, rules and regulations. While life in Montreal is quite different, Edie and her family are still affected by events in Europe as well as anti-Semitism at home. Occasionally, readers see the same historical event which is viewed quite differently from either side of the Atlantic. Weber separates her book into the years 1938 – 1945 and then each year is divided into two parts as readers hear Sabine’s story for that time and then switch to see things from Edie’s point of view. The two narrators continue throughout the book, but there is never confusion. In fact, this technique provides an interesting look at the war from both the German and Allied sides.
The title illustrates the importance of a yellow ribbon which comes and goes at various points in the story. As the author explains:
The yellow ribbon is the thing that connects the two girls, even though they are separated without any warning at the age of twelve...The ribbon is an important symbol of their love and bond with each other. From an early stage in the writing, I could see the yellow ribbon tied around the branch of the bush, blowing like a leaf, and the title came to me. (p. 494)
This wonderful novel has many positive features to offer to young readers. Some will enjoy the friendship of the two girls and the drama of their respective lives during the war years. Some will focus on the excitement and adventure of the novel, particularly in the background of Nazi Germany. And those readers who are interested in history will have a first-hand look at World War II from two quite different yet equally valid and valuable perspectives. Weber includes such notable historical events as Dieppe and D-Day as part of her narrative, so history buffs will enjoy both the fiction of the two girls and the facts of the historical time period.
Weber looks at big philosophical questions. What happens during war, and how can anyone support such terrible devastation? Is one side always totally right or totally wrong? Can love and friendship ever triumph over hatred and ideology? The Ribbon Leaf will provide excitement and enjoyment for readers as well as causing them to look at some very difficult issues which remain with us long after the peace treaty was signed in 1947.
Ann Ketcheson, a retired teacher-librarian and high school teacher of English and French, lives in Ottawa, Ontario.