Commentary on "A Good Sort of Kid" by Melissa Darce

Melissa Darce’s Story, “A Good Sort of Kid,” was successful as a story and well written for the most part. The story started out with good scene but as it progressed it lost placement in space in time; I noticed through my reading of it that I did the same thing in my own story. Along with scene and schematics, some of the details didn’t add up. An example is how the storm blew all the firewood but then the boys have no trouble starting a fire with wet wood.

            The beginning of the story was set up as if it was in a much earlier time, and I really liked it, but after reading about the zipping tents and flashlights I was confused and it took away from the story for me. If it was supposed to be a modern story than I’d like to see the boys behave a little differently and not like a scene from Lord of the Flies, but if it is going to be an older story then I’d like to see more little details that show me the time period it is set in.

            Mikey Sluggo was a great name and I think Darce did a great job with his character. Some of the supporting characters weren’t consistent though, like the scout leader, he was made out and described by Darce to be hard and feared, but then he was caring or creepy and invited Mikey into his tent and didn’t seem to be the same person.

            I also didn’t like the answers to questions within the text. Sentences like, “Yes his mother raised him…” and “Surely, Richard Believed, that Mikey would laugh this time, but no…” brought me out of the story and felt too conversational.

            Dialogue for the most part was done very well, especially dialogue tags, but in times it was telling too much and I didn’t feel like the boys actually thought the things they were saying. (page 7)