"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