Sonia Nazario risked her life to write a story. It was nothing compared with what her subject went through.

“For some journalists, research means sitting at a computer and surfing Google and other information services. For Sonia Nazario, a Los Angeles Times projects reporter, it means getting covered with fleas and filth as she investigates the children of hardcore drug addicts.

It means leaving home for months at a time to sit on top of a moving freight train running the length of Mexico, risking gangsters and bandits and the occasional tree branch that might knock her off and thrust her under the wheels. It means not eating, drinking water or going to the bathroom for 16-hour stretches — all in service to the story.

Nazario, 45, is the author of “Enrique’s Journey” (Random House, $26.95), an amazing tale of a Honduran teenager’s life-risking odyssey to the United States to find the mother he hasn’t seen since he was 5.”

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