After The Goat Man

Harold and his friend Ada try to reconcile Figgy's grandfather, the Goatman, to the evils of progress.

This was the first of what I thinks of as "my three character books." Usually, and I can't help this, I have a favorite of the three, and with this book it was Figgy.

The book had its beginning with a news story. a highway was coming through West Virginia, and one of the farmers whose home was being taken was a man known as The Goat Man. There were pictures of him standing defiantly with his goats (and his gun) and I thought, "This is not right."

At the time I started the book, my kids were involved in playing Monopoly. The first line of the book reflects, possibly, how tired I was of it. "The game of Monopoly had been going on for a day and a half."