Hurdles in the Dark : Roaring Brook Press : 9781250847850 : 1250847850 : 15 Jul 2024 : Twenty-four hours: that's how long fourteen-year-old Elvira Gonzalez is given to come up with the 40,000 dollars she needs to save her kidnapped mother from a drug cartel. It's 2006 and Elvira's hometown of Laredo, Texas, has become engulfed by the Mexican Drug War. Elvira's life is unraveling around her - setting her on a harrowing path that leads her to being locked up in one of South Texas's worst juvenile detention centres. After Elvira's released, she's determined to win a track scholarship out of Laredo and begins breaking into the school, alone, at 5:30 in the morning to practice hurdling. At just seventeen years old, Elvira experiences the dangers many young athletes face, especially those who are marginalised. In spite of these towering obstacles, Elvira eventually propels herself to become one of the top ranked hurdlers in the USA and the first in her family to go to college.