The Gymnast
Book 1 of the Street Performers Series
From tightrope acts above traffic to the 2028 Olympics — a girl's decade-long fight to reach the world stage.
Overview
In the summer of 2018, seven-year-old Roshni walks a tightrope strung above a busy road, cars passing beneath her feet, performing alongside her siblings to earn a little extra for their family. She is poor. She is a child. And she is already dreaming past the limits of the street below.
Ten years later, at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Roshni launches off a springboard, barely grazes the beam, and hangs suspended — a blur to the spectators — before landing perfectly on both feet. Sanjay Chandra's first book in the Street Performers Series tracks the distance between those two moments: the grit, the sacrifice, and the discipline that transforms a tightrope act above a road into a gymnastic performance on the world's biggest stage.
Chandra writes with the economy of someone who understands that the story's power lies in its arc, not its ornamentation. Readers who want to know the score — and everything it cost — will keep turning pages.
Her two older siblings also performed their acts for the passes-by. They were poor and only wanted to earn a little extra for their family. But there were dreams in their eyes. They wanted to reach out to touch the stars... 10 years later... Olympics 2028 Los Angeles... Roshni started her run with long and powerful strides... She jumped from the springboard, and it seemed that she barely flicked the beam. She was airborne... She was now a complete blur to the spectators as she came down and made a perfect land on her two feet-her arms raised looking at the judges... And then the scores were announced...
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