I feel a little torn over “Good with Boys”. On one hand, the voice and the development (or lack thereof) the narrator, Jill, was interesting. I’m not certain how old the school kids are, but I’m assuming that they’re in middle school, probably around 8th grade, so it makes sense that Jill is interested in boys. Even if she admits that she knows her crush on Esau won’t last, I think she’s driven by a curiosity of boys more than anything. This explains her selfish behavior, yet doesn’t justify it. Jill is incredibly unlikeable, but I admire that in a writer. Being able to write an unlikeable character while maintaining a sense of realism is difficult, and while the narrative wasn’t my favorite, it wasn’t necessarily because of Jill’s personality/narration. I also like how the author included a sense of inner turmoil within Jill. There are multiple moments where Jill wrestles with being “boy crazy” and being “parent favorite”. The readers see that she doesn’t necessarily want to go to the paleontology exhibit, yet for her curiosity surrounding Esau, she pushes herself to do so. The moment that this story takes place in was also well-chosen. Ending the story with the butterfly release allows the reader to see that there may be a point in which Jill begins to grow up. At the start of the story, Jill can be seen as a caterpillar within a cocoon. She has an idea of who she wants to be, but the grappling and insecurities she has surrounding her motivations shows that she’s not fully developed. By the end of the story, the release of the butterflies can symbolize that Jill is on a path to grow into the person she wants to be, even though she is hurting at the moment. This, in my opinion, is a great way to end a short story, especially one that revolves around the main character’s flaws.