S. E. Hinton

"Youth is free from worry," I said sarcastically. "You've been listenin' to too many adults."

When I first read this book at thirteen, I enjoyed the story. After all, it was about teenagers trying to figure out the world and relationships. It's a time when "adults" try to tell you to enjoy your life because it only gets harder OR they just tell you to suck it up and deal with whatever is going on because it only gets harder. The drugs, alcohol, family situations, and fights were all just backdrops to the story. It was a teenage movie in book form.

Reading this book forty years later hit me the same but completely different. At this point in my life, I have navigated many of the problems this book addresses both successfully and unsuccessfully. This tempted me to recommend this book to a fourteen year old and then I thought better of it. It is an excellent book but there is a level of retrospection that makes the story more bittersweet. I returned to those feelings that occurred between the relative freedom of junior year in high school and the seriousness that happens for many as they enter their senior year in high school. Relationships shift and sometimes disintegrate in that space which feels like the flip of the switch at the time. But this book highlights how a totality of events are gently moving that switch until it just clicks into its new position.

With all that being said, I will probably still recommend this book to a certain fourteen year old in the hopes that they can have the same thoughts later in life.… (more)

"The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton is a really good book because it talks about stuff that teenagers can understand, like being friends, feeling like you don't fit in, and how money and where you come from can affect your life. It's interesting because it's set in the 1960s, but the things the characters go through are still things that people deal with today. Teachers could use this book with students to talk about what it means to be yourself, to be a good friend, and how the world can treat people differently just because of where they come from or how much money they have. They could also talk about why some people make bad choices and how those choices can change your life.… (more)

One of my first loves in books, The Outsiders fueled my obsession for the greaser subculture during my adolescent years, and it was one of those books of escapism where I wished I could jump inside and live a different life. I had the whole James Dean/Marlon Brando look, the sticky pomaded hair, the black leather jacket and the slim white T-shirt, but always found myself out of time. This book is really homely and feel-good for me, and it spurred me on in confidence to accept who I was and how I dressed, spurning what others thought of me. When things were rough all over, I always stayed gold.… (more)