User:Clarejames22/sandbox

Plot Summary
Iris Wight lives in Maine with her best friend Beatrice Stone after her dad dies and having no connection with her mom. Soon conflict stirs between Beatrice’s parents and Iris is forced to go live with her Aunt Sue and cousin Book in North Carolina. Aunt Sue has always been distant to the family, so Iris does not know what to expect. Iris is surprised that Aunt Sue immediately begins giving her chores and jobs around the house and goat farm where she now lives. Iris soon becomes attached to the goats, they are the one thing that she loves in her new life. Iris enrolls in the local county school, where Book goes, she soon meets Littleberry a Gothic, quiet boy in her English class.

Back on the farm Tammy one of Aunt Sue’s pregnant goats is ready to deliver, Iris is sent to the store to get more K-Y gel and gets back just in time to watch the 3 new baby goats be born. Aunt Sue informs her that since they are all male and can’t milk when they are old enough and fat enough they will be slaughtered for their meat. Iris is heartbroken as the holds the tiny newborns and knows she has to do something to save them from their sad future. Soon Iris comes up with a plan to save them, she will bring them to the nearby forest and set them free hoping they will wander off and find a better home. After releasing them Iris goes to school only to find that one of the goats has wandered onto school campus, Iris rushes out to retrieve the goat hoping no one has noticed but the principle is already called Aunt Sue. When Aunt Sue arrives they tie down the baby goat to the back of her truck and drives them both back to the farm,. Iris is again surprised to see the other two goats waiting for her back in the barn, having been found by Aunt Sue. Iris goes and does the milking in the evening and when she is going to her room Aunt Sue is waiting and slaps her hard across the face and sends her to bed without dinner. In the morning Iris awakes to Aunt Sue yelling at Book to find the gun and tie the baby goats up. Iris tries to leave her room but Book had locked her in. Iris watches out the tiny bedroom window, as Book pulls the trigger, nothing happened. Iris quickly remembers taking the pin out of the gun, and smiles knowing the goat will live. Book has another plan he ran to the barn and grabs a shovel and begins slashing at the goat. Iris panics watching her baby goat get abused she opens the window and jumps out. But she doesn’t make in time the goat died, Iris is furious and mad, she begins screaming at Aunt Sue and Book. Minutes later animal control shows and asks what had happened to the mutilated baby goat, Aunt Sue tell them that the goat snuck behind Book’s truck when he was baking up. Iris is trying to tell the truth but she is ignored.

Aunt Sue then takes Iris and Book to a nearby lake where Book is forced to beat Iris. Two days after being in the hospital Iris is brought to a foster family while Aunt Sue and Book are in jail. Iris lives with the Tuten’s, she goes back to school and joins the softball team. School is hard for Iris because the football team thinks she got Book locked up on purpose but friend and new boyfriend Littleberry is always there to help. The Tuten’s don’t allow iris to go back to the farm, but she leaves school early because no one is taking care of the goats and she doesn’t want them to die. Iris goes to the jail and asks for Aunt Sue’s permission to allow her to take care of the goats on her property, and Aunt Sue agrees. After a while Iris realizes the goats are better off with her than Aunt Sue, and finally Aunt Sue gives her the goats.

Character List
Iris Wight is the protagonist, a quiet 16 year old in need of a friend, she loves softball and all animals except weasels. Aunt Sue Allen, a middle aged single bossy mother the total opposite of sympathetic, living on a goat farm. The Goats Mr. Wight is Iris’s dead father who was a veterinarian and raised her very well. Book Allen is 18 and huge. He plays football for the high school team and does what ever his mother tells him. Beatrice Stone, Iris’s best friend, is very obsessed with boys and her own life and is not a great friend to Iris. The Tuten’s are Iris’s new foster family, and they love weasels. LittleBerry and Shirelle both go to Iris’s school. Littleberry is a quiet characters who become Iris’s boyfriend. And, Shirelle is a peppy member of the softball team. Mr. Didio and Mrs. Roosevelt both work at the high school and help Iris after the beating. School peers and the football team

Biography
Steve Watkins is married to Janet Watkins and has four daughters; Claire, Maggie, Eva and Lili. He currently lives in Fredericksburg Virginia, and teaches journalism, creative writing and 20th century American Literature at the University of Mary Washington. He also teaches Ashtanga Yoga at the local YMCA along with volunteering for Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). He graduated from Florida State University in 2000, receiving his Ph.D in 1990, M.A 1985 and B.A in psychology in 1977. He went to High school at New Bern High School in Craven County, North Carolina. Craven County is where his book What Comes After, takes place.

Awards
Awards: Watkin has received many awards including the: 2009 Golden Kite Award, Flannery O'Connor award in 2006, Gustavus Myers Award,  1997 Virginia College Stores Book Award, and the Southern Regional Council’s Lillian Smith Award for Nonfiction.

Works
Works: Steve has written many works such as The Black O, My Chaos Theory, What Comes After, Down Sand Mountain and some works of poetry all published at Candlewick Press.