The Art of Holding On and Letting Go by Kristin Bartley Lenz
The Art of Holding On and Letting Go
Competitive climber Cara Jenkins feels most at home high off the ground, clinging to a rock wall by the tips of her fingers. She’s enjoyed a roaming life with her mountaineering parents, making the natural world her jungle gym, the writings of Annie Dillard and Henry David Thoreau her textbooks. But when tragedy strikes on an Ecuadorian mountaintop, Cara’s nomadic lifestyle comes to an abrupt halt. Starting over at her grandparents’ home in suburban Detroit, Cara embarks on a year of discovery, uncovering unknown strengths, friendships, and first love.
Cara’s journey illustrates the transformative power of nature, love, and loss, and discovering that home can be far from where you started.
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“Cara is an appealing, engaging narrator. Surrounded by a well-rounded cast, Cara's journey toward a peaceful, fulfilling life is almost perfectly depicted. A compelling, unusual coming-of-age story.” --Kirkus
Kristin Bartley Lenz is a writer and social worker who has lived in Michigan, Georgia, and California. Her debut young adult novel, The Art of Holding On and Letting Go, was the 2016 Helen Sheehan YA Book Prize winner, a 2016 Junior Library Guild Selection, and an honor book for the 2017-2018 Great Lakes Great Books Award statewide literature program. Her fiction, poetry, essays, and articles have been published by Hunger Mountain, Great Lakes Review, The ALAN Review, Literary Mama, WOW! Women On Writing, The New Social Worker, and Writer’s Digest. She also writes freelance for Detroit area non-profits and manages the Michigan Chapter blog for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
