The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton fits into the Juvenile Fiction genre. It was first published in 1967 and is recommended for people age 12 and up.

Summary and Review: The Outsiders tells the shockingly realistic story of two gangs, the Greasers and the Socs (as in Socials). Ponyboy Curtis tells the story from the side of the Greasers because, as he puts it, “Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand them and wouldn’t be so quick to judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore.” Ponyboy is the youngest of the Greasers and is being raised by his two older brothers, the oldest no more than twenty, after the untimely death of their parents. Hinton’s novel had a fresh view on an old topic and it was interesting to read about these boys’ adventures. They stuck together through everything from drive-in movies to murder in self-defense. There are some components of this book that would make people shy away from it but I think it is worth the read for anyone who shows interest. A boy is murdered but it does not dwell on the scene for more than a paragraph, it deals mostly with what happened after. While it was not a page-turner it did go quickly and it was interesting even though it didn’t draw me from the beginning. It reminded me of West Side Story without the love story element.