Yummy: the last days of a Southside shorty by G. Neri

It was 1994, and a hot summer but things in Southside were getting hotter.  There was a dangerous mankiller on the loose and police had no leads.  Everyone in the neighborhood knew him...knew what he did...

A gang shooting took the life of a 14 year old innocent girl, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  And she knew her killer - he went to school, even church with her. 

Yummy was 11 years old when he died.  At one point in his life, he was committing a felony every month, but because of his age, he came back to the Southside projects in Chicago, Illinois.  Yummy is the cold-blooded killer everyone was looking for....

This powerful graphic novel takes the short life of a child and pulls in the reader through narrative, images, and a biography.  But it's the essence and the not so black-and-white issue at hand that will draw the reader in.  Although not an in-depth look into Robert Sandifer's (aka Yummy's) life, the reader gets to know him through the words and illustrations Neri and Du Burker have created.  The forward by the author lets the reader know that this is a blend of narrative fiction and non-fiction taken from the stories, news reports and other sources about Robert Sandifer.  The afterward gives a brief synopsis of  Chicago's Southside and the Black Disciple Nation as well as an annotation of additional information.  A very quick read, but one that will leave the reader with lingering thoughts, and for this reader, a desire to know more about the story of this tragic tale and life of this kid....