In "Lost Girls," Yolen takes the popular literary work Peter Pan and changes its tone from one of adventure and fun to one of menace and misery. Her premise for the novelette is the treatment of girls in the play. In the play, Wendy becomes like a mother to the lost boys, including keeping house. To Darla, this seems unfair, and she thinks it very unfair once she has witnessed first hand how the lost girls are treated.

Complicating matters is fact that Wendy herself is part of the problem. Darla calls her "Miss Management" because she has sided with Peter and serves to keep the other girls in line. It may be a weakness in "Lost Girls" that her behavior does seem particularly motivated, yet its contrast to what Darla thought was unfair in Peter Pan makes it a significant part of events in the...