Don't let it get to you! Volume 3. Not everyone can be saved.

Cover

As with volumes 1 and 2, Marie Sann illustrated this cover. It shows Jane, the new protagonist of the series, in manga style. The world of manga is her safe haven, where she hides from reality. To everyone, she is known as the manga girl. From the two covers of the first volumes, the two characters Mrs Williams and Savannah Hanson can be recognized on the left side of the picture. New on the cover, but not a new character in the series, is Mike, guitarist in Ben's band, who, like Jane, lives in a youth home. The girl in the top right corner is Brittany. She also lives in the youth home and already had two short appearances in the second book. But other characters from the first volumes have not been forgotten. Ben, Sam, Charly, Troy and others all have their place in Jane's story because they are all connected by an overarching motto: Don't let it get to you!

introduction

This children's book/book for young adults is the third volume in the Don't let it get to you! series. The past childhood and current experiences of the three protagonists are described in two volumes each.

Isabella Knoesel took over the editing. The cover and the illustration on the back of the book were illustrated by Marie Sann.

Manga Girl, as 17-year-old Jane is called, lives in a youth center in Memphis. She hasn't seen her birth parents since she was five years old. Together with her older sister Miranda, she was taken from the care of her formidable parents by the youth welfare office and placed in a foster family. The girls are happy to have escaped, especially from the father who sexually abused Miranda. But their ordeal continues. They are beaten again, have to starve and are passed from foster family to foster family. Until Jane's sister can't take it anymore and takes her own life. Left behind, Jane tries to make her way on the streets until she finds accommodation in a youth home. She was fourteen years old at the time.
To escape reality, Jane escapes into her own world and draws manga. Jane particularly writes down the stories of the women she meets at a self-help group. Her manga always have a happy ending because, unlike in the real world, the victims are saved. But not everyone can be saved. Like maybe Jane? She cuts herself and often wishes she could be with her sister.
In the third volume of the Don't let it get to you! series, the reader is sent into the dark, self-destructive world of a deeply unhappy teenager. Can Jane manage not to let all the suffering around her get her down? Or will she follow her sister to her death?
When Ben visits his sister Sam in the youth home in the second volume of the series, Jane appears for the first time. She looks after Sam, shows her around the home and helps her move into her eldest brother Charly's apartment. In the third volume they both stay in touch because Sam is allowed to go to the same school as Jane. But there is also always a connection to Ben through Mike, the guitarist of the band Supernova Tommy Boy, who lives in the home like Jane, and Jane will see him again.
The protagonists of the Don't let it get to you! series are related to each other. On the way to adulthood, each of them develops differently, in their own specific way. It's exciting to see how the contact between them changes.

Reading sample

Reading sample from Chapter 9 – Mike

….
An hour later Mike was there. We both stood next to the coat rack and looked at each other. Nobody really knew what to say. I smiled awkwardly and searched for a phrase to start a conversation.
Finally, it was Mike who started: “So, Jane. I'm here now. Do you want to talk to me about yesterday?”
“Yesterday?” I asked in surprise.
"Yes yesterday. Already forgotten? I told my story in the support group. I only did that so you would finally talk to me.”
»I know you meant me. And I can imagine that it must have taken a lot of effort for you to go there and talk about your past in front of all the women, especially since you always rejected the group. But I can’t talk about myself as freely as you can. I haven’t learned how to deal with it.”
"Jane." Mike grabbed my arms. »It also took me a long time to be able to deal with my past. First I had to learn to accept it. So, this all actually happened to me. Of course, it still hurt me yesterday when I talked about it. Come on, let’s sit down first.”
We went to the couch and sat down. I looked at the fish and imagined they were watching us both.
“Jane, are you listening to me?” Mike asked, stroking my hair.
"Yes, I'm listening to you."
"And? Would you like to try it?”
"To try something?"
"To talk to me about it."
“Mike, you know what happened to my sister and me. I don’t need to tell you that.”
»I definitely don't know everything. Plus, it's more about talking about it than... How should I put this? ...than to convey it. Do you understand?"
I nodded.
“But you know, Mike. I don't feel like it. I don't want you to know everything exactly. It is none of your business."
Mike avoided me with his eyes. My last words angered him. He was my friend, and as his girlfriend I should be able to trust him with everything. What was I afraid of? That he tells the next best thing? Is peddling my past? The last few years had actually shown that I could rely on him. It wasn't okay to offend him like that.
“Sorry, Mike. “It just slipped out,” I said in a quiet voice.
“No, Jane. You didn't just slip out of it like that. Do you know what has helped me so much over the last few years?”
I shook my head.
»I believed in love.«
Mike put his hand on my lap and looked down at me.
“Not all people are the same, you know. But they still exist, Jane. The people who can feel love. Who still know what love is. It's a shame that you don't belong to them or no longer belong to them. Somehow I already thought that. I've thought about you so often these last few weeks."
"Mike..."
I started to cry.
»Every night and whenever a few good thoughts came to me, I wrote something down. A poem. I wrote this for you, Jane. Maybe it helps you."
He took a piece of paper from one of his pockets and handed it to me.
"Here, Jane," Mike said, standing up.
In a voice choked with tears, I called out, “Mike, I really love you.”
He smiled, walked to the door and turned to me again. One last time.
"I know. Read it. OK? I like the line 'That only the love lets you feel alive' the best. Take care, Jane.”
Mike left the apartment. I remained frozen on the couch, but I wasn't alone. His thoughts remained.

To the Love

Sacred emotions – are they gone forever?
Hate and despair – they will never leave us
Apparently – I think we are too well
Or, are we just under a stunning spell?

Marching like robots through life towards death
What do I need? Fortune? Success?
What do I already have is what I continuously feel
Now it comes out, so let me reveal

I still have, and had already before
The love
For my heart and for my soul

And for my belief
'Cause love is what relieves

To the love, I feel it
So, let me sanctify it

And when not the love
May I'm damned forever
I would commit a sacrilege
My own one
And there would be no bridge
As a saving path doesn`t matter

To the love, I say it
May my days be covered by shadow
In the darkest gloom, my days shall flow
Shall flow and shape a river
A river of sadness, a river of pain
Blood and tears forever
I would never complain

To the love, I call it
I would beg for no mercy
'Cause I would lie to myself
If I didn't adore the love
'Cause I would break my heart myself
If I didn't believe in love

That's why I would rather die
Before I forget feeling alive
And perhaps we should tell them
That only the love lets you feel alive

So, I raise my voice and shout
TO THE LOVE

I read his poem and his thoughts again and again until it came to me again. Back in the youth home, we sometimes met on the playground at the swing. On a clear night, when the light of the moon and the stars fell into my room, waking me up and preventing me from sleeping, I went out to the playground. I began to rock, looking up at the stars or closing my eyes and enjoying the way my hair blew back and forth. At some point Mike came over and sat on the swing next to me. After watching me swing for a while, he would always start telling me stories. He babbled like a waterfall, but I liked it and let him talk. I should have just listened to Mike!
…

Not for sale reading sample from Doreen Gehrke Verlag. The use of this reading sample, whether in part or in full, is in breach of copyright without the written consent of Doreen Gehrke Verlag. Translating the reading sample and using it in electronic systems is also punishable.

Back cover

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