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mrsjhasbooks's review
5.0
G. Neri has successfully captured the thoughts of a community and a nation in the highly volatile 90s of Chicago's Southside. Yummy is a child deserving of our empathy and our anger. He is a forgotten child who found infamy as a result of his violent actions as he looked for a place to belong. The gang and gun violence that wreaked havoc in Chicago during the 90s is captured through Neri's storytelling that relies on first-hand accounts, news broadcasts, presidential addresses, and some fictionalized threads that help readers to see that victims of this violence, like Yummy, are beyond categorization. The issues that plagued Chicago's Southside (and still today), cannot be easily solved. The solutions to these issues will require time, money, and a significant investment in community infrastructures if we hope to see youth succeed. Yummy, unfortunately, became a poster child for this violence, and G. Neri has taken the time to help readers see that what Yummy experienced was deserving of our empathy and our anger and frustration. He was not just a victim but also a perpetrator of violence.
This one would be perfect to pair with many other texts..thinking about Always Running by Luis Rodriguez too...
This one would be perfect to pair with many other texts..thinking about Always Running by Luis Rodriguez too...
jmanchester0's review
5.0
Stories like this make me think of ‰ЫПPersonal Responsibility!‰Ыќ The battle cry of the privileged.
I hear ‰ЫПno one has personal responsibility anymore.‰Ыќ ‰ЫПNo one is accountable for their actions.‰Ыќ
Well, when you aren‰ЫЄt profiled because of your color, it‰ЫЄs easier to have ‰ЫПpersonal responsibility‰Ыќ because you‰ЫЄre not getting arrested or shot for doing nothing.
And when you are privileged, it‰ЫЄs easier to appear you are accountable, even if you‰ЫЄre not, because it‰ЫЄs easier to get a good lawyer and the court system isn‰ЫЄt set against you.
But people who want to scream ‰ЫПPersonal Responsibility!‰Ыќ don‰ЫЄt really care about any of this, do they? They just want someone to demonize, someone to blame for their problems, someone to point at and say, ‰ЫПI am better than you.‰Ыќ
What do you do when you believe society has abandoned you? There are all kinds of articles about angry white men believing they are being persecuted. But what happens when you really are persecuted?
I don‰ЫЄt know.
But I know we need to do something. We need to fix this.
This was a tough story. It was a good read. A short read.
Read this.
I hear ‰ЫПno one has personal responsibility anymore.‰Ыќ ‰ЫПNo one is accountable for their actions.‰Ыќ
Well, when you aren‰ЫЄt profiled because of your color, it‰ЫЄs easier to have ‰ЫПpersonal responsibility‰Ыќ because you‰ЫЄre not getting arrested or shot for doing nothing.
And when you are privileged, it‰ЫЄs easier to appear you are accountable, even if you‰ЫЄre not, because it‰ЫЄs easier to get a good lawyer and the court system isn‰ЫЄt set against you.
But people who want to scream ‰ЫПPersonal Responsibility!‰Ыќ don‰ЫЄt really care about any of this, do they? They just want someone to demonize, someone to blame for their problems, someone to point at and say, ‰ЫПI am better than you.‰Ыќ
What do you do when you believe society has abandoned you? There are all kinds of articles about angry white men believing they are being persecuted. But what happens when you really are persecuted?
I don‰ЫЄt know.
But I know we need to do something. We need to fix this.
This was a tough story. It was a good read. A short read.
Read this.
peyjturner's review
4.0
I picked up this book during my shift in a public library. It's an interesting mix of fact and fiction, all used to paint a story of a life lead by violence and ending in violence. It's a short read, but not a light one. And the starkness of the black and white style used in this graphic novel belie the shades of a gray that the author uses to paint the life of this child. I suggest it for mature readers of serious/heavy-themed graphic novels.
cerahsee's review
4.0
Yummy is a fictionalized account of a true story. In this graphic novel, G. Neri tells the story of Yummy Sandifer, a 12 year old gang member from Chicago. Sandifer shot and killed a 14 year old girl in the middle of an attempted gang-initiated hit and went on the run. He was eventually picked up by two brothers who were members of Yummy's gang and murdered as a result of the attention that his actions had brought upon the gang's activities.
Neri's story is told from the perspective of a fictional classmate of Sandifer's. As Roger watches events unfold, he (and the reader) are both tasked with reconciling who Yummy was with who he became as well as deciding for yourself whether or not he was a victim or a bully.
This story is a heartbreaking one and you go into reading knowing that the story doesn't really have a happy ending. You also finish the story wondering what would have become of Yummy if things had been different in his life.
Neri's story is told from the perspective of a fictional classmate of Sandifer's. As Roger watches events unfold, he (and the reader) are both tasked with reconciling who Yummy was with who he became as well as deciding for yourself whether or not he was a victim or a bully.
This story is a heartbreaking one and you go into reading knowing that the story doesn't really have a happy ending. You also finish the story wondering what would have become of Yummy if things had been different in his life.
athereaderofbooks's review
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Good in terms of telling a story from multiple perspectives and looking at the morals of a situation.
erynduffee's review
3.0
I read this to my middle schoolers and they were captivated by it. It offers a good lesson to students who might be tempted to follow Shorty's path but the story was a bit reductive.
jackelz's review
4.0
This book is based on true events and is an honest look at the vicious cycle of gangs. 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. Three days later, Yummy’s body is found in a railway tunnel. At only 11-years-old, was Yummy a killer or a victim? Was he responsible for his actions or are others to blame?
maestrolatinx's review
5.0
Powerful portrayal of the multiple points of view of Yummy, an 11 year old boy, who committed a terrible crime. If it “takes a village” to raise a child then is the village to blame? This graphic novel is in white and black but the story is not. The facts seem clear but the root of the issues are not. It was a quick read but one that will linger for a while.