The Outsiders [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

S. E. Hinton (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 20, 2006

Ponyboy can count on his brothers and his friends, but not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids who get away with everything, including beating up greasers like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect--until the night someone takes things too far.

Written forty-five years ago, S. E. Hinton's classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was written.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser. This classic, written by S. E. Hinton when she was 16 years old, is as profound today as it was when it was first published in 1967. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"In a book now considered a classic, Ponyboy can count only on his friends when it comes to mixing it up with the Socs, a gang of rich kids who like nothing better than beating up on greasers like himself."
-- Booklist (Booklist ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Speak; PLATINUM EDITION edition (April 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014240733X
• ISBN-13: 978-0142407332
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,855 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction
  • #48 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

More About the Author

Susan Eloise Hinton's career as an author began while she was still a student at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Disturbed by the divisions among her schoolmates into two groups--the Greasers and the Socs--Hinton wrote The Outsiders, an honest, sometimes shocking novel told from the point of view of an orphaned 14-year-old Greaser named Ponyboy Curtis. Since her narrator was male, it was decided that Hinton use only her first initials so as not to put off boys who would not normally read books written by women. The Outsiders was published during Hinton's freshman year at the University of Tulsa, and was an immediate sensation.Today, with more than eight million copies in print, the book is the best-selling young adult novel of all time, and one of the most hauntingly powerful views into the thoughts and feelings of teenagers. The book was also made into a film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring such future stars as Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, and Tom Cruise.Once published, The Outsiders gave her a lot of publicity and fame, and also a lot of pressure. S.E. Hinton was becoming known as "The Voice of the Youth" among other titles. This kind of pressure and publicity resulted in a three year long writer's block.Her boyfriend (and now, her husband), who had gotten sick of her being depressed all the time, eventually broke this block. He made her write two pages a day if she wanted to go anywhere. This eventually led to That Was Then, This Is Now.In the years since, Ms. Hinton has married and now has a teenaged son, Nick. She continues to write, with such smash successes as That Was Then, This Is Now, Rumble Fish and Tex, almost as well known as The Outsiders. She still lives in Tulsa with her husband and son, where she enjoys writing, riding horses, and taking courses at the university.In a wonderful tribute to Hinton's distinguished 30-year writing career, the American Library Association and School Library Journal bestowed upon her their first annual Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors authors whose "book or books, over a period of time, have been accepted by young people as an authentic voice that continues to illuminate their experiences and emotions, giving insight into their lives."

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#64 in Books > Teens

#64 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 112 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Blast from the Past June 14, 2002

By frumiousb VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I first read _The Outsiders_ 19 years ago (the year that the film version was released). Hinton was all the rage to read in my high school and I was seriously attached to Ponyboy and Sodapop and the rest. Like many another teenage girl smitten by Ralph Macchio, I memorized the Robert Frost poem and cried buckets at the end of the book.

It's funny to me to hear recent reviewers discussing the book in terms of its relationship to gangs, because I don't see it as being about rival factions. Instead, I see it more as a meditation on the price of having an inside and an outside to any given social context. At the time the book was written, it was the socs and the greasers. At my high school it was the Jocks and the Beegs. It's about people being judged by their clothes and their family rather than their abilities and their desires.

Hinton's book stands up well to time-- I'm a lot more cynical than I was as a child and I couldn't summon tears anymore for the characters, but reading it I could still revisit the concerns that I had at the time and the world that this book represented.

A good gift for young teenagers.

55 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gangs and Cliques March 18, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This was a book I had to read in High School. Though I wan't an avid reader, I loved it! Probably because it reminded me of the rivalry between the "jocks" and the "freaks" in my own High School.

The narrator is Ponyboy, sensitive with a tough exterior. Since his parents are deceased, he and his laid-back older brother Soda are taken care of Darrel the eldest, who's a bossy perfectionist (really only worried that he might lose his baby brothers). There's Johnny Cade, whose family life is insufferable. There's Dallas Winston, mean and gruff (but has a soft spot for Johnny). And then there are the Soc's, the spoiled kids who like to pick on the greasers for fun (the "fun" runs out when their buddy is killed). And let's not forget Cherry Valence, who though dating a Soc has a heart and a mind all her own.

While Pony and Johnny hide out after the murder, with Dallas coming to their aid and rescue, the 3 "greasers" temporarily clean the slate of all stereotypes and somehow wind up as heroes! If you're wondering how these events occur, go read the story! You won't be disappointed!

48 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant. What more can I say? November 10, 2000

By Callie

Format:Hardcover

This book, which was written in the 1960's, may have well been written today. It describes the many conflicts between gangs, social groups, family violence, and friends. I was made to read this book twice when I was in middle-school, but even so I enjoyed it. Many emotions and thoughts surround the patrogonist, Ponyboy, who describes ganglife in the city. The book goes into many depths to develop the personality and emotions of every single character, and even from the view of the main character, you know the intellects of every little character. Every emotion is very sicere and well portrayed and not a detail is left out. You get a good view of human nature, feelings, and life. The story has a very moving plot that deals with family conflicts, murder, robbery, gang fights, friendship, social status, and loss. It does well at alerting the reader of the seriousness of gang warfare. Even though it expresses the many sad parts of life in the city, it gives a message that there can be hope and there is hope for those who have not lost the fight yet. This is an incredible book and definately worth getting. A must read!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Angieville: THE OUTSIDERS October 2, 2009

By Angela Thompson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I read THE OUTSIDERS for the first time when I was a teen myself, just a little bit younger than Ponyboy and Johnny. This book had a huge impact on me at that age. I fell so deeply in love with Hinton's simple, vivid writing style. Never had teenagers like me felt so real and present on the page. I couldn't stop telling my mom about it and how good it was and why. I'm sure she still remembers those nights. It is an oft-challenged book, unfortunately, and thinking about it now, I would have been devastated if someone had told me I couldn't read it or had come and taken it out of my library. I can't imagine not having read it then and I have read it so many times since. It's truly a classic and deserves the praise it's gotten over the years.

Ponyboy Curtis is a Greaser. He lives on the wrong side of town. He acts tough, dresses tough, and lets his hair grow long to look tough. He lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Sodapop, and they barely make ends meet. Darry and Soda work hard to support themselves and let Ponyboy stay in school so that at least one person in the family can graduate high school. Pony's best friend is a sad boy named Johnny Cade who's been beaten around one too many times and spends a lot of time looking over his shoulder, anticipating the next blow. The only family these boys have are each other. Pony, his brothers, and their motley group of Greaser friends watch each other's backs and defend each other when necessary. Particularly when the Socs (rich kids from the other side of town) come looking for trouble. Dangerous Dally, funny Two-bit, somber Steve. Through Ponyboy's eyes we catch a brief, eloquent glimpse into the life of a group of teenagers the world seems to have forgotten, who take life's knocks on the chin and somehow keep going....

I picked a small, worn copy of THE OUTSIDERS up off the shelf of a tiny used bookstore in Texas and took it home with me because I felt like the kids on the cover might be worth knowing. How right I was. This story of small-town prejudice and class warfare set in the 1960s has never really aged. The first time I cracked it open I was immediately enchanted by the magical language these kids seemed to speak, a language full of "greasers" and "Socs," "savvys" and "tuffs." I couldn't tear my eyes away. It is a coming of age story and a commentary on the dangers of going through life with blinders on, of judging people who are different from you before you know them. Of not wanting or caring to know them. Every character in this story is backed up against the wall, struggling to survive, and I cried more than once at the injustice of it all. And yet, when you come to the end, you feel the indomitableness of hope, the possibility of change, and the beauty of the human spirit. THE OUTSIDERS has been challenged several times on the grounds that it includes rough language, violence, references to cigarettes, alcohol, and for depicting broken families. And we would never want young adults to know that such things exist or, heaven forbid, that they may encounter them in their own lives. *eye roll* I get so angry when I hear hogwash like that. Never mind that it's beautiful, and real, and good. That it will teach its readers about how to treat their fellow human beings, how hatred and fear do nothing but destroy, and how the sunset looks the same no matter which side of the tracks you're from. That's the kind of book I want to read. That's the kind of book I want my children to read. And no one is allowed to tell me no. Read more ›