The Art of Holding On and Letting Go by Kristin Bartley Lenz

She learns that she can include the old and the new in her life. However, she still longs for her old life. Cara makes friends and is able to find a connection with them and her grandparents despite their differences. As a person who was raised in nature and led a fairly unconventional life, getting thrown into public school in Detroit and living with her grandparents is a very difficult change for her. Much of the story focuses on Cara’s loss, not just of people but of places as well. These elements make Cara’s story vivid and unique. Along with rock climbing, the book discusses nature a lot, as Cara and her family read books by famous writers who wrote about nature, including Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. The book delves into the uniqueness of her life and the sport, giving readers a look at something that they may not know much about. Much of The Art of Holding On and Letting Go is about Cara’s first love: rock climbing. Cara has to figure out how to return to the one thing she loves without it being too painful to bear.

But then someone starts leaving notes in her locker, trying to get her to return to climbing. Cara has to learn how to navigate a normal high school, friendships, and the city.

Stuck in her grief and in a normal high school, Cara finds herself at a loss without rock climbing and without her parents, who are dealing with the grief of losing their friend, Cara’s uncle. But when her parents and uncle go on a climbing trip in Ecuador, tragedy strikes Cara’s life and she is sent to live with her grandparents in Detroit, Michigan-a world away from her usual life in their cabin in California. Her parents and uncle, famous rock climbers themselves, have raised her as a nomad and a child of the wilderness. Cara Jenkins feels that rock climbing is in her blood.

The Art of Holding On and Letting Go by Kristin Bartley Lenz