In 1994, in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, a 14-year-old girl named Shavon Dean was killed by a stray bullet during a gang shooting. Her killer, Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, was 11 years old. Neri recounts Yummy's three days on the run from police (and, eventually, his own gang) through the eyes of Roger, a fictional classmate of Yummy's. Roger grapples with the unanswerable questions behind Yummy's situation, with the whys and hows of a failed system, a crime-riddled neighborhood, and a neglected community. How could a smiling boy, who carried a teddy bear and got his nickname from his love of sweets, also be an arsonist, an extortionist, a murderer? Yet as Roger mulls reasons, from absentee parenting to the allure of gang membership, our picture of Yummy only becomes more obscure. Neri's straightforward, unadorned prose is the perfect complement to DuBurke's stark black-and-white inks; great slabs of shadow and masterfully rendered faces breathe real, tragic life into the players. Like Roger, in the end readers are left with troubling questions and, perhaps, one powerful answer: that they can choose to do everything in their power to ensure that no one shares Yummy's terrible fate. (Aug.)
"Compassionate and unflinching." Gene Luen Yang, award-winning cartoonist and former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature
* "Tightly researched and sharply written... This is a graphic novel that pushes an unsightly but hard to ignore socio-political truth out into the open." Booklist, starred review
* "Comics illustrator DuBurke's gritty black-and-white artwork employs foreshortened backgrounds to bring the action right up in the reader's face, whether it's talking heads calmly discussing their theories on Yummy's disordered personality, families in mourning, or a semiautomatic pointed directly out of the frame... Heartbreakingly contemporary." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review
* "A much-needed look at the terrifying perils of life on the margins that will have all readers pondering the heady question of moral responsibility." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* Framing the story through the eyes and voice of a fictional character, 11-year-old Roger, offers a bittersweet sense of authenticity while upholding an objective point of view... the exploration of "both sides of the story" is unflinchingly offered. School Library Journal, starred review
"Illustrated with the rough vigor of a Jack Chick evangelical tract, this graphic novel, evoking Yummy's famous mugshot for its cover image, makes for an authentic parable of the dangers of gang life and gang-ruled streets. It's too real to feel preachy, and Roger's narration of Yummy's brief life is realistically stoic and sympathetic." The Horn Book
"Neri's straightforward, unadorned prose is the perfect complement to DuBurke's stark black-and-white inks; great slabs of shadow and masterfully rendered faces breathe real, tragic life into the players. Like Roger, in the end readers are left with troubling questions and, perhaps, one powerful answer: that they can choose to do everything in their power to ensure that no one shares Yummy's terrible fate." Publishers Weekly
Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor - American Library Association (ALA)
Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee
ALSC Notable Children's Books - American Library Association (ALA)
Best Books - Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of the Year - Publishers Weekly
CCBC Choices - Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Editors' Choice - Booklist
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award Nominee - Indiana Library Federation
Garden State Teen Book Awards - New Jersey Library Association
Glyph Award Nominee - The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC)
Great Graphic Novels for Teens, Top Ten - Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Nominee - State Library of Louisiana
Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List - Texas Library Association (TLA)
Notable Books for a Global Society - International Literacy Association (ILA)
Once Upon a World Children's Book Award - The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance Library and Archives
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers - Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee - Rhode Island Library Association
Virginia Readers' Choice - Virginia State Literacy Association
"So young to kill, so young to die" read the 1994 Time magazine cover with Yummy's photo. Yummy was a real 11-year-old Chicago kid, with father in jail, abused by his mom, and sucked all-too-readily into the Black Disciples gang. "The disciples ain't stupid," comments a character in Neri's account. "They got this endless supply of young ones with no daddy, just looking for attention"—pit bull puppies who could escape felony convictions because of age. Given a gun and sent on small jobs, Yummy was a bundle of thug ego with a kid's immaturity, and he accidentally killed a teen girl bystander while threatening supposed rivals. Now a liability as a magnet for unwanted attention, Yummy was executed by his own gang. While Neri invents a fictional narrator as tour guide for the reader, the story is based on public records, media reports, and personal accounts. VERDICT Neri's re-creation paints a compelling and sympathetic portrait of how a youngster became too eager to please the wrong people, and DuBurke (Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography) provides skilled, semiphoto-quality inks and shadows that do his subject justice. Strongly recommended for tweens and up.—M.C.
Gr 7 Up—In 1994, an incident of Southside Chicago gang-related violence captured national headlines. Eleven-year-old Robert "Yummy" Sandifer shot and killed his 14-year-old neighbor Shavon Dean. Neri's retelling is based on public records as well as personal and media accounts from the period. Framing the story through the eyes and voice of a fictional character, 11-year-old Roger, offers a bittersweet sense of authenticity while upholding an objective point of view. Yummy, so named because of his love of sweets, was the child of parents who were continually in prison. While living legally under the care of a grandmother who was overburdened with the custody of numerous grandchildren, Yummy sought out the closest thing he could find to a family: BDN or Black Disciples Nation. In the aftermath and turmoil of Shavon's tragic death, he went into hiding with assistance from the BDN. Eventually the gang turned on him and arranged for his execution. The author frames the story with this central question: Was Yummy a cold-blooded killer or a victim of his environment? While parts of the message focusing on the consequences of choice become a little heavy-handed, the exploration of "both sides of the story" is unflinchingly offered. In one of the final panels, narrator Roger states, "I don't know which was worse, the way Yummy lived or the way he died." Realistic black-and-white art further intensifies the story's emotion. A significant portion of the panels feature close-up faces. This perspective offers readers an immediacy as well as emotional connection to this tragic story.—Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
A haunting, ripped-from-the-headlines account of youth gang violence in Chicago provides the backdrop for a crucial mediation on right andwrong. The fictional Roger, Neri's protagonist and moral compass, revisits the cautionary tale of classmate Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, an 11-year-old shorty with a sweet tooth, in this dramatic re-creation ofhis brief life. During the sweltering summer of 1994, Yummy's gang initiation goes horribly awry: A bullet intended for rival gangsters accidentally cuts down Shavon Dean, 14, a former childhood playmate. As the nation—from Time magazine to then-President Clinton—reels with shock, Yummy goes into hiding, setting the stage for Roger to investigate the "Little Killer's" beginnings before the summer, and Yummy's life, comes to a grisly end. DuBurke's raw illustrations evoke the heightened emotions of the time. The artist adeptly balances the contradictions of Yummy's life, as scenes of exaggerated violence (torching cars and looting stores) slowly dissolve into typical childhood vignettes (pet frogs and beloved teddy bears). A much-needed look at the terrifying perils of life on the margins that will have all readers pondering the heady question of moral responsibility. (Graphic fiction. 12 & up)