His name was Robert Sandifer, but everyone just called him "Yummy" because he loved cookies and candy so much. Some people thought he was a sweet kid, just a little bit lost. Others saw an evil uncontrollable child that meant to do real harm. Whatever friends and neighbors thought about Yummy, it is an undeniable fact that he had racked up 23 felonies by the time he was 11 years old and killed Shavon Dean, a neighbor who was caught in the crossfire when he tried to shoot a rival gang member. Yummy's story was quickly picked up by the press and his face was soon plastered all over the papers and local news as police tried to find him. He was even on the cover of Time Magazine but, at that point, Yummy was already dead.Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty is a truly heartbreaking story based on real people and tragic events that happened in south Chicago in 1994. It's also an absolutely brilliant graphic novel that pulls the reader in from the very first panel. G. Neri's story and Randy DuBurke's stark illustrations perfectly capture the complexities of Yummy's story: Was he really an evil kid? Was he a lonely little boy who was willing to do anything to belong? Was he a heartless bully or as much of a victim as Shavon Dean? As author G. Neri points out in his author's note, there are no easy answers to this story, but perhaps this book can help readers understand how such a tragedy happened in the first place.
