Heck Superhero by Martine Leavitt, 2004

This is a powerful book by a very talented author. It's depressing as all heck, though. Heck is a 13-year old boy living on the streets because he and his mother got evicted and he won't go for help because it would mean admitting he's not a superhero. It would mean breaking up his family and being put into a "frosty home" or a foster home. While he is looking for his mother, he performs all kinds of Good Deeds, which is part of his Theory of Everything: Good Deeds always return to you. In doing these Good Deeds, he's hoping to get enough money to find his mom and to make everything all better. Wrapped up in all this is the subtext of what it means to be a superhero, the Theory of Everything, and how art and science and life are all intertwined. Recommended.