A Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich

Benjie is thirteen years old. He is poor, he is black, and he is hooked on heroin. Everybody wants him to get clean, but Benjie isn't sure he wants to kick his habit. The drugs make him feel calm. They make him feel better about his mom spending so much time with her boyfriend. They make him feel less afraid of living in a dangerous neighborhood. Without drugs, what will he have left? Told from the interchanging perspectives of Benjie's mother, her boyfriend, Benjie's teachers, friends, grandmother, and others -- and from Benjie's own point of view -- A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich takes the reader from Benjie's first time experimentation with drugs, through his addiction, and into his attempts at recovery. The characters are so perfectly conceived and the dialogue so flawlessly real you will feel as though you know Benjie and those who occupy his world.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Turtleback Books
Published: 02/01/2000
ISBN: 9780812418095
Pages: 126
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 7.20h x 4.30w x 0.60d
Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 41459 / Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich
Reading Level: 5.6 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 5