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Jamila Mikhail

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Don't Let Me Go Kindle Edition

by Jamila Mikhail (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 11 ratings

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On top of battling the normal teenage angst that everyone goes through, Joanie is also reeling from her parents’ bitter divorce and having to cope with her mother’s new boyfriend and father’s new family. Alone in a new town and without friends, she turns to passing the time by indulging in her longtime hobby of making toy models of soldiers and is both amazed and shocked when one of them comes to life.

Despite her millions of unanswered questions and having to make sense of new mysteries every day Joanie comes to find a loyal and trustworthy companion in Adler, a lieutenant in the Wehrmacht and a member of the German Resistance during World War II who must also find a way to handle living in modern times on top of being invisible to most of the population.

The two of them will have to fight several battles on many fronts in both the physical world and unseen realms as they both try to comprehend Adler’s new existence and piece Joanie’s broken life back together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Don't Let Me Go by Jamila Mikhail is an enchanting take on the young adult genre as it features an inanimate toy soldier that not only comes to life but has an existential crisis as well. Here we have a young girl named Joanie, who is struggling to make sense of her parents' divorce and having difficulty adjusting to the new relationships that her mom and dad found respectively. This turns her life upside down, and she finds herself isolated in the town of Bluepond, where the only true friends she has are her dolls. She has a passionate interest in crafting dolls ranging from film characters, soldiers, and people she meets on a daily basis. Among her masterpieces, Adler, a Wehrmacht soldier and member of the German Resistance, is the most beautiful and most detailed. She is in complete awe of him and one day he comes to life! It appears that Adler is a Keeper--a soul from a different existence who comes into the metaphysical world to provide guidance for fellow humans. Their friendship is then challenged by both physical and metaphysical elements that influence the course of their lives.

Reading Don't Let Me Go will make you wish that the story never ends, but you also want Joanie and Adler to find the meaning that they have been looking for. Jamila Mikhail has managed to weave questions and concerns into a plot for this fairy tale. On top of that, she does not want her readers to be limited to being entertained; she provides relevant reading questions at the end of the story as a form of self-evaluation to see if you learned anything from the book. While stories about toys or puppets coming to life have been done before, Don't Let Me Go treats you to elements that will surprise you with the philosophical and spiritual blending to break what is predictable. It is a disservice to simply call this young adult fiction for it offers something far more than fantasy and entertainment.Reviewed By Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07D3DYQ1X
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Keep Your Good Heart (August 1, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1983 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 290 pages

Customer Reviews:
4.6 11 ratings

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Jamila Mikhail

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Jamila Mikhail, or simply Mila for short, is an award-winning author based out of Ottawa, the capital of Canada. In 2018 she was one of the people who received the title of Top Writer on Quora and over the years she has also received several awards for her poetry and short stories ever since she started writing on a serious basis in 2011. Mila is currently working towards a degree in Indigenous Studies and Environmental Studies. In her spare time Mila also enjoys various hobbies including photography, gastronomy, building toy models of various sizes and studying a variety of things including history, criminology and foreign languages. Most of all though, she enjoys being the company of her cats Squeaker and Carling. She thinks that writing about herself in the third person is strange.

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DaveM

A toy come to life? What could be better?

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2018

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I am an old guy, 68. My taste in books in recent times runs largely to fiction, fantasy and science fiction for the most part. I have a couple of feeds that pass along other things, though, to keep my mind more flexible. One of those is fiction for young adults.
I start, but do not finish, many YA novels, because they often seem to be following a formula. In 'Don't Let Me Go' I read the whole thing. Like many a young boy, my brother and I had toy soldiers and other figures, and we spent many a cold winter day or rainy summer day imagining adventures with our soldiers. We mixed cowboys, knights, even frogmen and baseball figures with the army men, so our 'men' were not locked into their own worlds. With all of their backgrounds (as far as we could imagine) they shared this one.
So having a soldier suddenly come to life was a great vehicle to draw me to the book. I was puzzled at first that the soldier was Wehrmacht, and I wanted to know why him. The story answered that, and more. It was a good read.

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Jennifer F.

A Touching Story

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2019

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So many books geared toward young adults contain story lines about the unrealistic like vampires and magic. This story tells of real struggles that they face with a supernatural twist. The story came to life with the audiobook. Look forward to hearing more from this author.

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christy Mckinney

Will definitely be reading this author books again.

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2018

Joanie is a 13yr old girl who's going through some pretty hard times after her parents divorce. She lives with her mom, step dad and Stepbrother. Mike isn't a great guy and Joanie feels lost and alone.
She spends her time making dolls, soldiers to be exactly.
When she's having a really hard time, her soldier Adler comes to life. No one can see him but her.
This book can get really dark at times and deals with some big issues. At the same time the author instills alot of hope and wisdom.
There is also a lot of history and science going on. I love history but science? It was kinda my worst subject in school even though I find it fascinating. A few things went over my head, but, it was so interesting I'll be looking them up.
The end surprised me. Like really surprised me. For a minute I sat there like what? Then it all came together.
I'm not going to lie. When I first started this I wasn't sure I would like it. I was wrong. Totally wrong. I really enjoyed.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2021

I almost skipped this book when it said it was about a German Resistance soldier. I AM SO HAPPY I READ THIS! A beautiful coming-of-age novel about a lonely girl who takes comfort in the dolls she builds from bits and pieces. Joanie creates Adler and her other dolls as her ‘friends’ while trying to deal with her parent’s divorce and their subsequent relationships and the normal angst of teenaged years. The relationship that develops when one of her dolls comes to life is a wonder, with both of them leaning on, trusting and teaching each other about life from their own unique perspectives. Ms. Mikhail will touch a deep place in your heart with this one. BRAVO! I LOVED IT!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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Victoria Haugen

LOVELY INSPIRATIONAL STORY

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2018

This is not my first introduction to Jamila Mikhail, and certainly won't be my last. She's a lovely person, and an amazing writer :)

Very personable and inspiring story about a young lady (well, teenager) who has to start all over after moving to a new city when her parents divorced. Very real emotions and setting - it's a very stressful situation, after all. We've all had problems like these - well, most of us :)

In times of great stress, our minds work in mysterious ways.

Joanie finds a very interesting and unique way to cope with the stresses she's under - one of the toy soldiers she's made is ALIVE! She finds solace with Adler, a lieutenant in the "Wehrmacht" (had to look it up LOL! - the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946) and a member of the German Resistance during World War II. No one but Joanie can see Adler, and they strike up quite an intriguing relationship.

GREAT STORY, beautifully written and narrated, I love Jamila's work! Definitely recommended :)
Please take a moment to click the "YES" ("Helpful") button below if you found this review helpful :) Thank you!

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337

Entertaining and Uplifting

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2018

Some fictional stories take place in a world very different from our own: think of The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. But my favorite kind of fictional stories are ones that take place in our world, where everything is exactly as we know it... EXCEPT FOR ONE BIG THING, and it's that one difference that causes the drama. "Don't Let Me Go" is exactly that kind of story. The settings are a real world city, house, and high school we could easily live near. The protagonist is the kind of young teen girl we could easily sit next to on the bus, and barely take notice of. Her family problems are as real as they are raw... and then the author brings in the ONE BIG FANTASTIC ELEMENT to give the heroine some very unique ways to deal with her troubles. I won't reveal too much of the plot and spoil it, but I'll say I found the story entertaining and uplifting. It's easy to root for the main character Joanie, it's good to watch her grow through the story, and the characterization of Adler is perfect in his near-perfection. An enjoyable tale!

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Katharina W.

An uplifting story

Reviewed in Germany on October 18, 2018

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I enjoyed this book a lot; the idea of a keeper and the way it is presented in the book made me wish I had a keeper of my own. Even though the story deals with tough topics such as bullying and domestic abuse, a hopeful feeling is created throughout the whole thing. There is a surprise twist at the end, which I definitely did not see coming! The character Joanie is a very realistic representation of a 14-year old in my opinion, something which not many authors achieve when writing teenagers.
I would recommend this book to any teenager, struggling or not; this story would have helped 14-year old me a lot.

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Don't Let Me Go Kindle Edition

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