The Outsiders

Title: The Outsiders
Author: S. E. Hinton
Published: Originally 1967, this was the Kindle version
Genre: Young adult
Pages: 192


Like so many teenagers ever since The Outsiders first came out, I loved this book some 20 years ago. Well, maybe not quite 20 years, but almost. Yikes. I was a big reader then, too, and I'd read everything else by Hinton that I could get my hands on. Around last christmas they showed Rumble Fish on TV, and The Outsiders a little later. Watched both, and got the urge to re-read some books.

Ponyboy Curtis is 14, orphaned with two older brothers, and a Greaser. Greasers are generally considered to be youth delinquents, dropouts, poor and dangerous, whereas the Socs (socials) are the rich kids with fancy cars and bright futures. The two groups fight constantly, and no-one is safe. One night, Ponyboy and his friend, a fellow Greaser called Johnny (I love how even the toughest ones call him Johnnycake), are walking home from a movie when they get jumped by a group of Socs', and things go too far.

S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was 15 and 16, and it became a classic that's still going strong over 40 years later. And it was a good read as an adult, too.


   Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the sights you want to see.