The Outsiders (1967) - S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders (1967) - S.E. Hinton
Puffin, ISBN 9780142407332, 180 pages

Recorded Books (1993), ISBN 0788737384
5 compact discs, narrated by Spike McClure

(photo credit: www.goodreads.com)

Awards and Honors:

New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Books List, 1967

Chicago Tribune Book World Spring Book Festival Honor Book, 1967

Media and Methods Maxi Award, 1975

ALA Best Young Adult Books, 1975

Massachusetts Children's Book Award, 1979



Annotation: Two groups of teenage boys from different sides of an Oklahoma town struggle for recognition and respect. Ponyboy, one of the Greasers, struggles not only with the rival Socs, but also against members of his own family.

Review:
I don't know if The Outsiders deserves the moniker it's often given, "The First Young Adult Novel," but I do know that it has a power that's undeniable, even after more than forty years. Although Ponyboy is part of a real family (consisting of his two brothers Darry and Sodapop), he's also part of a larger family: the Greasers, kids who are just on the verge of becoming a gang, but mostly just want to be left alone. They probably would be, if not for the antagonism of the wealthy and privileged Socs.

Hinton was smart enough (even as a high school student, when she wrote the novel) to avoid cardboard characters and predictable scenes of gang violence. Instead, she gives us believable characters with real problems, problems we've all had in trying to get along in this world. Sometimes there are no easy answers and no easy ways out of some types of conflict. Yet The Outsiders shows us that things don't have to remain the way they've always been. Maybe that's why the novel has stood the test of time.