The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton

Penguin Group, 1967, 180 pp., $6.99
ISBN 0-14-038572

The Outsiders is a book of loyalty, trust, but most of all, love. This book is based on a boy named Ponyboy Curtis’ life, he is 14 and he lives with his two older brothers Sodapop and Darry. Ponyboy is a good student and gets good grades in school but is sometimes singled out because of his background information.  Ponyboy’s parents died in a car crash so Darry takes care of him now. Darry doesn’t seem to care too much about Ponyboy because he always fights with him and yelling at him for every little thing he does.  Sodapop is the middle child in their family and he is always trying to have fun. Not only is he fun to be around, he is kindhearted and always listens to what you have to say. All of these characters may seem interesting, but that’s not even the beginning of the exciting tale.

The Curtis brothers belong to a gang called the Greasers who are enemies of another gang called the Socs (short for Socials). The Socs are the rich ones, the ones with the Mustangs, the cool clothes, and the nicest houses on the block. The one thing that the Socs don’t have is kindness. They are always getting into all sorts of mischief like getting drunk and causing a catastrophe, and mugging people from the hood like the Greasers. Even though most of the Socs are bad, there is one Soc who is sweet and hates violence and anything leading into it. Her name is Sherry Valance, but her friends call her Cherry because of her read hair. She dates one of the bad Socs whose name is Randy. One night at the movies Randy sees Cherry hanging out with Johnny and Pony who are his enemies and he gets mad and goes on a rampage to get them and the next thing you know the night ends with death.

When I first read this book it didn’t seem to interest me very much but as I got farther into it I started to enjoy it more and more by the second.  In this book S.E. Hinton put out a lot of cliffhangers at the end of each chapter to keep you reading and she also liked to tease people into thinking that the day was going to be either good or bad and I never really knew what to expect.

I recommend The Outsiders to people who like reading, and even people who don’t like reading because I myself don’t enjoy reading a lot and I just could not put this book down. So if you ever happen to pass by this book, just read the first chapter and you won't stop.
~ reviewed by Megan P.