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Fifteen-year-old Nick is a shy homeschooler whose best friend is his
younger sister. Growing up on a farm, they both like the Australian
horse-riding sport campdrafting, but Nick is too nervous around other people to
compete. Tired of watching his sister making friends wherever she goes, Nick
joins a local swim squad to challenge himself.
There he begins to come out of his shell, especially when he is
befriended by four of his teammates who show him how to be friendly and
self-confident. He soon discovers that he is great at swimming the breaststroke
and finds the assurance to compete in meets. As his friendships and self-esteem
grows, his shyness diminishes, but will that be enough to help him compete in
the next campdraft event?
Written by a homeschooling mother of six, Holding Back provides an
authentic look at what homeschooling is like and how hard it can be for
homeschooled kids to challenge themselves in social situations.
Rhiza Shorts are teen novellas for reluctant readers.
About the author
Frances Prentice is a mother of six,
including one stillborn, who lives with her husband and two youngest children
on a cattle property in rural Queensland. She juggles her writing with home
schooling, tutoring and running a home school co-op. She loves creating stories
with young people and is planning to self-publish works she has co-written with
young authors. She has a passion for helping people with reading and writing
difficulties so they can experience the joy she has had in literature. She is
an avid reader of middle-grade and young adult fiction, who first dreamt of
being an author at the age of eight. She always thought she would be
middle-aged when she began this career, once she had some life experience.
Frances has been shortlisted twice in
Furious Fiction by Australian Writers Centre in 2023. Her short story
Uplifted was included in the anthology
The Opposite of Disappearing (2021) and
I am Vine in Audrey Puzzle Magazine
(2020). Her ballad,
Love at First Sighwas included in the anthology Tell ‘em
They’re Dreaming (2020).
Always, Your Sister is her first
middle-grade novel, releasing in 2025.
Summary
Nick, 15, is a loner at campdrafting events and lacks confidence. He is homeschooled and his younger sister is his best friend. Joining a local swim club leads him to challenge himself both physically and socially, until he becomes part of a mixed peer group who support him in his next campdraft event.
