Cara Jenkins is a nationally ranked competitive climber. Homeschooled by her mountaineer parents, Cara has always felt at home on rock faces and cliffs. When disaster strikes during a climb in Ecuador, Cara’s carefully ordered world is completely upended.
While her parents struggle to move on in Ecuador, Cara finds herself living with her grandparents in Detroit and entering a traditional high school for the first time.
Determined to give up climbing in her grief, Cara will have to figure out who she is on the ground as she makes new friends, discovers first love, and tries to figure out how to move past the one climb that changed everything for her and her family in The Art of Holding On and Letting Go (2016) by Kristin Bartley Lenz.
The Art of Holding On and Letting Go is Lenz’s first novel.
Cara is a thoughtful and methodical narrator with a voice that is as measured as her rock climbing paths at the start of the novel. Lenz expertly conveys the world of rock climbing and complex terminology while expanding Cara’s world with her move to Detroit.
While this story starts with a tragedy, The Art of Holding On and Letting Go is ultimately hopeful as Cara learns that there are many ways to find her place and leave her mark on the world.
Possible Pairings: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum, Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach, Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler, Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider, Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes
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