A wonderful comming-of-age book that deals with peer pressure, loyalty and growing up. I would greatly recommend this book to young and old readers alike.

Overview: Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up "greasers" like Ponyboy. AT least he knows what to expect - until the night someone takes things too far.

Review: S.E. Hinton has a knack for telling stories about inner-city life for teenage boys. This is her first novel and probably her best. A classic - read this and then watch the movie.

This book is a beautiful book for young adults. My grandaughter(13) did a book report on this book and it was beautiful. She has read all of the books by S.E.Hinton (who wrote while still in high school), so point of view is straight and forthcoming by a teenager. This is a wonderful story of gangs and growing up. I myself read the book before my grandaughter and loved the book.I think anyone of any age would enjoy this read.

Growing up, this was probably my favorite book. I couldn't believe that someone so young could write so eloquently... I always thought it was incredible that the imagery and grittiness was so strong, yet the closest thing to a curse word used was "damn".

This is an inspirational story of how good friends and family...people who believe in you...can give you to overcome what feel like unbeatable odds.

"Stay gold, Ponyboy!"

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

This is the story of the greasers and the Socs, the two social groups in the boys' town. The greasers are kind of a family of friends, because for most of them all they have is each other. The Socs are more violent and 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 and 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 and characters that you want to see succeed. That's what makes this book different from all the others, in a good way of course.

I liked that the characters seemed so real, like you really 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!

I think this is one of the few books that I actually liked in Jr. High when we had summer reading.

Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up "greasers" like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect - until the night someone takes things too far.

I LOVED this book as a child. Reading it with my son many years later was as revelation; it's still a great book and deals with contemporary issues. Teenage angst and class stratifictaion is timeless!

I love this book! It's a great example of true friendship.

A heroic story of friendship and belonging. Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up "greasers" like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect - until the night someone takes things too far.

This is an excellent book, lots of genuine emotion. One of my favorites as a teen.

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This was my one of my all time favorite books! It made me cry and laugh and i felt like i was a greaser in the book.

this book was required in highschool. i actually liked it. Has a movie based on the book. the movie isn't as good as the book.

I read this book 35 years ago and really liked it then. Now, having read it at 56 years old, I have a better insight on the characters and the book and like it even better. This is a well-written book that draws you into the story from page one and doesn't let you go even after you have finished the book. It is astonishing that the author was 16 year old when she wrote this. I highly recommend this book to anyone. I have given it to my son to read and hope that he gets as much out of it as I did.

The Outsiders is a book everyone should read. While it is "young adult" in most circles, if you haven't read it, you should...and if you haven't read it in a while, it's one of those books that you can re-read and you feel differently about it because of where you are at that time in life.

While I say this is a "classic," it is told in the first-person view of a young teen boy, so it is not dry at all. The main character as male helps those younger people relate to the book if they are boys themselves, but this is equally compelling to female readers.

It is also great to read aloud with a young person.

There was a time in eighth grade where I(embarrassingly)had this book practically memorized. I don't know what it was about the characters in this book, but they appealed to me ten fold. I still can't watch the movie without reciting the lines.

I think the thing I liked absolutely best about this story was that the whole time I was reading it I kept thinking, MY GOD! This is being written by a someone MY age!

Still a classic if you ask me.

I read Hinton when I was in Junior High. I loved her books. I tracked down as many as I could to read during that year. The life described in the books didn't match mine at all, but somehow they connected anyway.

This is such a great book. One of my favorites.

This book actually has ISBN #0440967694 and is PermaBound (a small hardback that is the size and weight of a paperback). It is the movie tie-in edition.

This book is a very good book. My teenage daughter absolutly loved this book!

A classic reading, Pony-boy.

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