8.4 /10 1 Votes
4.7/5 Barnes & Noble Publication date 1973 Pages 126 pp Originally published 1973 Genre Young adult fiction OCLC 797036 | 3.7/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print (Hardcover) ISBN 0-698-20278-3 Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publisher Coward, McCann & Geoghegan Nominations Coretta Scott King Award for Authors Similar Alice Childress books, Young adult fiction books, African Americans books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich is a 1973 young adult novel by Alice Childress.
Contents
Plot
Benjie is a 13-year-old, living in the urban ghetto of the 1970s, who succumbs to the allure of heroin. Encouraged by his friends, Benjie gets hooked on the dangerous monster that is slowly dictating his life. Everyone is urging him to stop but he cannot, as he is addicted to the drug. He disdains his counselors and teachers. After a final confrontation with his stepfather, he promises to quit.
Awards and nominations
A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich won an ALA Coretta Scott King Award honor, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and the Jane Addams Award for a young adult novel.
Title
The main reference of the title comes from the same phrase that Benjie uttered in the book. The real question is what it means. Benjie is implying that in the harsh world that he lives in, heroes and saviors have ceased to exist.
Film adaptation
The book was adapted into a film in 1978 starring Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield and directed by Ralph Nelson.
Censorship
In 1975, the book was removed from high school library shelves by the board of education of the Island Trees Union Free School District in New York. This case became the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1982.