Boundless

Athlete, medalist, and four-time Olympian Chaunté Lowe (b. 1984) vividly recounts her Paso Robles, Calif., childhood and arc toward the Olympics in a focused autobiography. She kicks off with an early memory of how watching Florence Griffith Joyner compete in the 1988 Seoul Olympics sparked her own early desire to become an Olympian and her subsequent focus on athletic pursuits. Forthright recollections offered in well-paced chapters detail Lowe’s sibling dynamic as the youngest of three sisters, awareness of her family’s financial precarity, and growing relationship with her supportive paternal grandmother, a vocalist who encourages her to embrace education and work toward a scholarship (“The life that you’re living now is not the life you have to have when you grow up”). Alongside experiences of housing insecurity and witnessing her stepfather’s violence, chapters distill Lowe’s eventually joining a recreation track team, living with her maternal grandmother in Riverside, Calif., and her road to the 2004 U.S. Olympic high jump team. Themes of individual drive, family, and teamwork appear throughout this galvanizing memoir, whose emotionally direct telling is rooted in determination and hope. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)