"Lost Girls" is a complex examination not only of a girl coping with the confusing relationship of her parents but of how boys and girls interact and how they divide responsibilities by gender. The novelette is also about fairness, about how a social group should treat all of its members fairly. The pirate ship is an example of how fairness may be achieved, with everyone sharing the chores and men and women having equal stature within their community. "A pirate ship is a very democratic place," Mrs. Hook says to the girls.

Achieving equality and fairness is difficult business, and in "Lost Girls" it involves the oppressed group, the lost girls, asserting themselves by defying authority.

Before Darla's arrival, the girls had been serving the boys for hundreds of years.

Little Lizzy, a four-year-old in size and temperament, has herself been serving in Wendy's kitchen for...