S. E. HintonRecensioni

Learning the author was 15/16 when she wrote this explains a lot to me. It's not the highest quality writing, but it's got the earnestness of a teenager with a huge burden on her heart.

"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.

Maybe a little didactic with Ponyboy coming to many mature insights and conclusions from his miss-adventures, but believable, and very good characterizations. My version was this audio (9781490674568), quite well narrated. The LAPL-Overdrive library catalog says it was co-authored by Spike McClure and narrated by Jim Fyfe, but the audio description at the end says it was narrated by Spike McClure--so no idea where Jim Fyfe comes in. :-)

"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.

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.

A Good Book with a Less than satisfactory ending

While not as famous as her book "The Outsiders", Hinton again explores the need to belong, alienation, and dysfunctional families, and their effects on young people. The ending seemed abrupt.

I loved this book and the movie. This is a cult classic book that is widely known by many. I remember reading this book as a whole class in middle school and it is a book that really stuck with me.

Mistakes were made, OK. I had never read the book, saw the movie yes, but never read (or listened to it) before now. Why now? My son had to read it for school and I thought, damn, I remember that movie (kinda) and if he has to read this modern classic, I should too. Give us something to talk about.
Well I forgot most of what happened and am thoroughly disappointed in myself for having waited so long to get through S.E. Hinton's work of art.
Friends and family, what are they? who are they? Adolescence. School. Loss. Life...such big questions, so much to get through. Who can you turn to? Who can you trust? What does it all mean? All of these were on the table for Hinton's 1967 work "The Outsiders". This title made me think, reflect, and remember. Well written, heck more than well written, S.E. Hinton is a woman who wrote a coming-of-age book about boys and young men and never missed a beat. What a feat! The stresses of youth, the life on the wrong side of the tracks, life on the run, but from who or what. And the story of family who they are, finding them, losing them and finally discovering something unlooked for.
What a book, and I might add, extremely well read by Spike McClure. I cannot recommend this more highly than I do. Everyone should read this and experience it. I am absolutely kicking myself for making the mistake of putting off for this long.½

Absolutely outstanding. Seen the movie in high school. Now, during quarantine, I read the book.

try 1: Heavily abridged version, oops. Got to find the real one.

try 2: Success! The things they chose to abridge were really odd, including a lot of the sense of place. I thought it was supposed to be NYC, and then Chicago, but it's really somewhere in the southwest (AZ? NM?).

I didn't know what this was when I started it, but it's an old young adult book. The line "stay golden, Ponyboy" comes from this book. A group of boys who consider themselves lower class, or greasers, tangle with a group of upper class boys, or socials. It's mostly about finding out that people are people with problems and longings no matter what group you put them in. This was written by a woman and there are almost no women in this book, which I thought was strange. I'd say this still holds up otherwise though.

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Murder and attempted murder, bullying, fire, building collapse, near-death experiences, death of parents in a car crash in the past, smoking
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

I wanted to read this for a while after adding it to my list but I put it off for a while; a few months later I finally picked it up and read it. When I finished it I thought it was one of the few books that were less than 200 pages yet it could still tell a great story which I appreciated and I'll remember this one for a while. It starts with the main character Ponyboy (whose last name I don't know) living presumably somewhere in America with other characters who are part of a group called the Greasers whose enemy is the Socs (I don't know why those two gangs hate each other but oh well. It might be an incident in the past that the novel never mentioned. Or something else entirely.) Everything looks fine initially until an altercation happens forcing Ponyboy to flee somewhere else, and soon enough they find a church where they stay for a few pages of the narrative. Did I mention they smoke a lot? I've never seen a book where teenagers smoke until now (and they still read books, I know some teenagers still read books but most of them don't unless it's required reading.) A few pages later the church burns down nearly killing some characters and I soon discover Ponyboy recovering but nothing much happened save for a heartrending conversation (don't get me wrong, that is a flaw in the book but it didn't ruin my enjoyment in any way) which ends the book on a low note.

Wow. This book will take some time to process. I love the writing style, voice, message, and story. So, basically I liked everything about this book.

(Read for YA lit class)

Stay gold, Ponyboy!

As a middle school teacher, I think this book would appeal to many students. It mentions cliques and struggles. It has a bit of violence in it. It had many themes throughout the book, but the one where we are all the same is a good one for all of us to understand. It is easy to read, and the movie goes well with the book. It is also a good historical piece of literature, as it discusses life in the 60's.

I got about half-way through this book, and had already decided it was fine, was planning on giving it a 3-star. Took me a week or so before I picked it up again, and then read it straight through to the end. The way it finished tied everything up so well, I had no choice but to give it a 5-star.

And to think that Hinton wrote it when she was a teenager makes it all the more impressive.

I loved this book as much the 2nd time around as I did when I was a pre-teen! It reminded me a bit of West Side Story and the film, Breakaway, with the rival groups. Ponyboy and his brothers, Darry and Sodapop, are orphans, and considered greasers. Darry has dropped out of school to care for his brothers. One day, leaving the movie theater with his friend Johnny, his life changes. The socs (socials) see that Ponyboy and Johnny are talking to one of their girls. That ignites a fight, and leads to deaths.
The social struggle between the groups, the needless killing, the love of family are all evident in this teen story.
So hard to believe that S. E. Hinton wrote this when she was 15-16 years old!

I had forgotten what a delightful read "The Outsiders" was. I read it many, many years ago and decided to try it again. I loved the narrator, Ponyboy. He was such a kind, sensitive, thoughtful boy and I felt complete empathy for him. In fact, all of Hinton's characters were fabulous, especially the greasers.

Although only short, "The Outsiders" was a touching novel about friendship, family, discrimination and society. A wonderful read.

I read this as a teenager and remember what a sweet and heartbreaking story it was. Revisiting the story as an adult only made the tale even more bittersweet. Truly a great book

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This is one of my favorite books I had to read in high school. I still remember it

the covers always said, "now a major motion picture starring matt dillon!" but if you find one that says "now a major motion picture starring mickey rourke!" please buy it for me. i will pay you back.

ALA Best Book for Young Adults! An old classic.

I'm blown away by the fact the author was 16 when she wrote this.

Read with Zachary for language arts class.

Leido por recomendación, me gustó mucho aunque ya sabía el final.