The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

Hello Dragonflies!

As we dust off the snow and get ready for spring.
This month we will be reading The Outsiders by S.E Hinton. The Outsiders is a coming- of-age- novel published in 1967. The book details the conflict between two rival gangs of White Americans divided by their socio-economic status: the working class "Greasers" and the upper-middle- class "Socs". The story is told in first-person perspective by teenage protagonist Ponyboy Curtis, and takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1965, although this is never explicitly stated in the book.

Hinton began writing the novel when she was 15 and wrote the bulk of it when she was 16 and a junior in high school. She was 18 when the book was published. She released the work using her initials rather than her feminine (Susan Eloise) so that her gender would not lead male to dismiss the work.

A film adaptation was directed in 1983 by Francis Ford Coppola, and a short-lived television series appeared in 1990, picking up where the movie left off. A dramatic stage adaptation was written by Christopher Sergel and published in 1990. A Tony Award-winning stage musical adaptation of the same name premiered in San Diego in 2023 then on Broadway in 2024.

This book is not on the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge List.
As always you don’t have to read the book to come to book club.
See you soon.