In Cormier's short story "Goodbye Little Girl" a father comes to grips with his daughter encountering her first love. The father is skeptical of the boy and expresses sadness in the idea of being replaced by a boy who can make her happy when he cannot. This story is a revised version of "Charlie Mitchell, You Rat, Be Kind to My Little Girl" published in McCall's three months earlier.
This short story features a father coming to grips with his daughter falling in love for the first time. It is difficult not to read this story as autobiographical or to overlook theĀ gender bias regarding a woman's ability to think logically. This story was later revised and published in Woman's Own under the title, "Goodbye Little Girl".