Customer Reviews
Not as good is the author thinks it is - By: , 15 Nov 2008 
From the start the book is tedious-most of alll how the author stops to write a description of every single character we meet- starting of with a boy walking home from the cinema & finding himself attacked by gang members. The main character (named PonyBoy) himself is unreal, he's a 14 year old boy who has no parents, is involved in gang crime yet spends his time reading & talking about how good looking his older brothers are.
The book is one of the worst written books i've ever read.
The Outsiders - By: Alistair Douglas, 03 Aug 2008 
Very good nd real, because Hinton was there. she was only 15 when she wrote it but from her writing u cant tell her immaturity
An oldie but a goodie - By: Ashleigh, 06 Aug 2007 I read The Outsiders for the first time when I was 12 years old & I think I must have read it about 20 more times between the ages of 12 & 14. I considered this the best book ever written so it was with some trepidation that I re-read my copy at the ripe old age of 24. I needn't have worried!
SE Hinton wrote this book when she was just 17 & if I am being totallly honest, her age does show in some of the passages which aren't always the best written in the world. But, what this book lacks in writing skill, it MORE than makes up in heart, passion & feeling. This book still managed to floor me & take me on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The story follows Ponyboy Curtis & his gang in the South West of America. It's a reallly simple story that does grab you from the beginning.
Some of the secondary charcters in the gang are a bit one dimensional because there's not enough time to flesh them out. The book cracks along at a fast pace & thankfully, the characters that are with you alll the way are so well thought out & real that reading about them again was like discovering old friends.
This story has a real punch to it, a punch that after 10 years & about 20 readings, still managed to leave me in tears. This is a wonderful, heartfelt book that readers of alll ages should look out.
5 STARS!!!!
Timeless, ageless - By: C. Ricucci, 17 Jul 2007 I must be one of the oldest persons to read & write a review of this book. I am in my late 50s & first read The Outsiders with my son when he was in middle school, years ago. I recently picked up the book again & read it alll the way through. I had forgotten how quickly the story "grabs" you & how difficult it is to put the book down once you have gotten into the book. Yes, there are certain aspects of the story which are dated; but alll in alll, teens today face most of the same problems with peer pressure today as they did 40 years ago when this book was written (and when I was a teenager): being judged unfairly by others, being callled names & made fun of, feeling isolated because they are "different", suffering the absence of parents or family members who reallly care & take time to listen & encourage them, & feeling the difference in social class, between kids whose families have money, education & status, & those whose working-class or single-parent families struggle every day just to survive. I highly recommend this book, especiallly to anyone under the age of 18, although it's a great read for anyone!
Courtesy of Teens Read Too - By: TeensReadToo.com, 09 Apr 2007 This is the story of the greasers & the Socs, the two social groups in the boys' town. The greasers are kind of a family of friends, because for most of them alll they have is each other. The Socs are more violent & like to fight. They are the rich kids who have things that the greasers can only dream of. They fight every once in a while -- but one night someone takes it too far.
From that point on the story surrounds the two boys who are on the run from the "fuzz" (police). The story is told from the viewpoint of Ponyboy Curtis, who is a fourteen-year-old greaser. He has two brothers, Darry Curtis & Sodapop Curtis. Their parents were killed a few years back, but the courts let them stay together as long as they stayed out of trouble.
This book is about so much more than the cliché of popular boys vs. loser boys. There are feelings & characters that you want to see succeed. That's what makes this book different from alll the others, in a good way of course.
I liked that the characters seemed so real, like you reallly knew them! I love it when a book is like that. There are internal conflicts with many of the characters as well as the good vs. evil aspect. Everyone in eighth grade should be required to read this book!
Reviewed by: Taylor Rector
