Illustrated by Randy duBurke ISBN-13: 978-1584302674 Graphic fiction. ages 12 & up from Lee & Low Books

2011 Coretta Scott King Honor

                                        Book Trailer for YUMMY

Awards and Lists:

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        In August of 1994, 11-year-old Robert “Yummy” Sandifer—nicknamed for his love of sweets—fired a gun at a group of rival gangmembers, accidentally killing a neighborhood girl, Shavon Dean. Police searched Chicago’s southside for three days before finding Yummy dead in a railway tunnel, killed by members of the drug gang he’d sought to impress. The story made such an impact that Yummy appeared on the cover of TIME magazine, drawing national attention to the problems of inner city youth in America.

        YUMMY: THE LAST DAYS OF A SOUTHSIDE SHORTY relives the confusion of these traumatic days from the point of view of Roger, a neighborhood boy who struggles to understand the senseless violence swirling through the streets around him. Awakened by the tragedy, Roger seeks out answers to difficult questions—Was Yummy a killer or a victim? Was he responsible for his actions or are others to blame?

        What Roger learns proves to be a puzzle of contradictions. Some say Yummy was a thug who deserved what he got. Others remember a sweet kid that liked candy and watching the Little Rascals. Neighbors blame his abusive parents for turning Yummy into a monster. The media blames the state system that turned him back out onto the streets time and time again. Politicians blame the laws that allowed gangs to use minors to commit felonies because they can’t be convicted as adults. Confronted with a blurry reality, Roger attempts to understand it all— including his own brother’s involvement in the very gang that killed Yummy.

        At Yummy’s funeral, Roger feels the senseless weight of Yummy and Shavon’s deaths. As the minister looks out on the crowd, he bluntly implores them to “Cry if you will, but make up your mind that you will never let your life end like this.” In the end, Roger, like the reader, is left to decide for himself what truths can be learned from life and death of Yummy Sandifer. 

Reviews:

 (starred review) 
"A haunting, ripped-from-the-headlines account of youth gang violence in Chicago provides the backdrop for a crucial mediation on right and wrong. 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

 (starred review)
"A harrowing portrait... Yummy will earn both the reader’s livid rage and deep sympathy, even as the social structure that created him is cast, once again, as America’s undeniable shame. This is a graphic novel that pushes an unsightly but hard to ignore socio-political truth out into the open." --Booklist

 (starred review) 
"Yummy [is] something entirely new. Gritty, real, willing to ask tough questions, and willing to trust that young readers will be able to reach their own conclusions. This is a story that needs to be told and it needs to be told to kids. Believe me, you’ve nothing like this in your collection. Better get it while you can."                                                      -- School Library Journal

 (starred review) 
"Call it historical fiction to be technically correct, but for kids who still grow up believing that "you make it past 19 these days, you a senior citizen around here," it's heartbreakingly contemporary. Highly recommended."                                                                     --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
 (starred review) 
"A stunning graphic novel... Teens who enjoy stand -alone graphic novels will be drawn to the compelling story and art, and moved by the tragic unfolding of events. This novel would also be an excellent resource for a classroom discussion on gang violence." --VOYA

"My favorite book of the year? Hands down, it's the graphic novel Yummy."
                                  --Amy Cheney, School Library Journal

"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. 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

"It should be a required read. Expect to be angered and disturbed. Yummy grabs at your chest with barbed-wired fingernails and won’t let you go easily."                                          --James Carter, PhD., EN/SANE WORLD

"It's gritty, it's honest, and it's devastating. And it's also SO important. Kids need to read this book and see what can truly happen when certain choices are made." -- A Patchwork of Books

"This is a work that demands discussion. Prepare for a story that won’t easily let you go. Highly Recommended." --Linus's Blanket

"Yummy is a choice pick, not to be missed for graphic novel collections." - Midwest Book Review

"Every once in a while, a story comes along that simply must be told - even though it tears you apart. Yummy, by G. Neri, is that story." --YA Book Central

"I am recommending it to everyone, adults who teach middle-schoolers and the middle-schoolers themselves, because a book like this doesn't come along very often. So exceptional that an exception to our review policy had to be made-- it's a must-read."--What's good in the Library

"Yummy should be canonical middle school reading. Yummy should be the 21st century Anne Frank. Middle school children should read it as part of their discussions on humanity, morality, and the responsibilities of civil society." - Pink Me

"It's the sparse and effective text that truly broke my heart. YUMMY is one of the most difficult and beautiful graphic novels I've seen and will linger with me for a long time." --YA Highway

"An absolutely brilliant graphic novel that pulls the reader in from the very first panel." --Booktalk

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How Yummy came about

“Sometimes stories get to you; this one left my stomach in knots. After three days of reporting, I still couldn't decide which was more appalling: the child's life or the child's death."

This quote from Jon Hull of TIME magazine pretty much summed up my feelings about Yummy. I remember when the story first broke. It was the September of 1994 and I was teaching in a classroom in South Central Los Angeles. I had been working with “problem” kids—some kids came from broken homes, some had siblings or parents in jail or some had family members who had been killed in the gangs wars that seemed everywhere at the time. More than a few of times, I heard an announcement come over the P.A. system for a memorial service of a student who had been killed.

 I remember following Yummy’s story day-by-day. A couple of the students had heard about it and we argued about whether he was a victim or a bully. A few days later, when Yummy was found dead and all the facts came out, I wasn’t sure who the bad guy was. There were no winners in this story, only losers. 

I couldn't get the story out of my mind, so I wrote about it. A few similar tragedies happened within a few months of this incident, all in the Southside of Chicago, all involving juvenile boys that ended in death. What came out of me was a movie script I wrote called Lil' Killers , which was a sprawling look at three of these incidents intertwined over a two month time period all within a few miles of each other. The script was a finalist for the Sundance Film Lab and was probably the best thing I had written to date. But everytime I thought about making it into a film, something stopped me. Film is such an immediate and visceral medium that would surely earn an R rating, cutting off the young people who needed to see this story. 

The end result is I kept searching for a different way to tell the tale of Yummy, one that might have positive ramifications. After many years and many false starts in mediums that ranged from theater to art installations to short stories, Yummy (one of the stories from Lil' Killers) found it's way to being a graphic novel. It seemed like the perfect way to reach young males --reluctant readers might read comics and if I was lucky, I'd get them right at that prime age where they might be making these life decisions about whether to join a gang or not. I didn't want to hit the reader over the head with it (just say no to gangs!) but I felt in just telling Yummy's story simply and without a heavy-handed moral lesson, they could decide for themselves what lessons there were to be learned. I wanted to plant seeds, just enough to start an internal discussion when a young person was confronted with joining a gang. Maybe that seed of doubt might bloom into something positive.

My hope is that Yummy will find its way into classrooms, libraries and into the hands of reluctant readers. This is a story that needs to be talked about and I hope that Yummy is just the starting point for a deeper, more meaningful discussion with young people all over this country.

5 starred reviews 

1. Order the Book
2. Educator Discount
   
3. Preview the book
4. Teacher's Guide
   
5. Randy DuBurke’s site
6. From script to final
7. My favorite graphic novels

1. G. Neri talks about Yummy on NPR
2. Yummy: the real story
3. Yummy local TV story
4. Yummy documentary
   
5. The court transcript
6. Yummy’s gang profile
7. What happened to Yummy's killer?
8. Interview with Yummy's killer
9. Victims of Gang Violence video
   
10. Ghetto Life 101