1Benjie 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.