Bibliography: Watkins, Steve. (2011). What Comes After. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 978-0763642501
Plot Summary: When her veterinarian dad dies, 16 year old Iris goes to live with her Aunt Sue and Cousin Book she has never really met. They don’t understand Iris, a vegetarian and animal lover. When Iris sets two baby goats free to prevent their slaughter, her aunt forces her cousin to beat Iris to teach her a lesson. Sue and Book go to jail and Iris enters the foster care system, but she’ll risk anything to make sure the animals at her aunt’s are being cared for.
Critical Analysis: This is a solemn, unrelenting, even dark book made darker by the fact that the author got the idea from an actual newspaper article about a girl who had been beaten. It begins from a place of grief and goes down from there. Iris is the focus, so we don’t get to really know what might be the motivation behind her aunt or cousin’s behavior, but we know that there is no excuse for what they end up doing. I really identified with Iris, she tried so hard to make the best of a bad situation, and she bonds with her aunt’s goats and dog, and manages to connect with a few students at her school. Her aunt and cousin seem to make no effort to understand her. Perhaps that is why the beating seems even more brutal, because there is such a disconnect. The author does not shy away from realistically portraying the beating of a baby goat or Iris, so this book may not be for everyone. However, readers who stick with Iris will rejoice when she works from her foster home to find a way to continue to take care the goats when her aunt is in jail.
Review Excerpts: “Watkins displays his expertise as he creates a heroine who is broken and yet refuses to stay down. Secondary characters are equally well-developed and engaging. Beautifully written, this story is an unflinching look at the cruelty of life as well as the resilience of the human spirit.”–Kirkus Reviews
“The story moves at a gentle pace, slowly pulling readers into Iris’s cheerless world. The teen is realistically emotional and stubborn, and the secondary characters are well developed. Give this one to teens who enjoy dramatic plots with rays of hope at the end.”–School Library Journal
“Details about farm life, softball, goats, and cheese making, as well as high school (some underage drinking, pot smoking, and bullying), hold the reader’s interest, but Iris’s detachment keeps the reader—and the people who try to befriend her—at a distance.”–VOYA
“…a story of hope and self-knowledge, speaks to all teens….The reader, with Iris, grows in empathy and self-knowledge through this book.”–Children’s Literature
Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy. Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.
