Throw Back Thursday

Throwback Thursday is a meme started by Taste Life Twice and is a post about a book that has been out for a while that deserves to be talked about again because yes, it was that good!

This week we throw back to:

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

I LOVE this book.  I've been teaching it to at least three different class periods every year since 1996! I never tire of it.  What I love most about it is that it hooks even my most reluctant readers.  I just warn them to hang on past the first chapter.  Every year I have at least one student that tells me it is the first book they've actually read and FINISHED in a long time. Thank you S.E. Hinton for that!  Of course I make sure to hand them all the other books she's written, so they'll keep reading. 

Side note: a few years back they re-released the movie finally including all the deleted scenes cut out from the original release.  It's something like 20 minutes of addition scense.  Those scenes made the movie even better - following the entire book not just the rumble and the issues between the Socs and the Greasers.  There are also some fantastic extra features including a news piece about the kids that started the ball rolling on the film.  My students love seeing that.

If you haven't read The Outsiders ever or in a long while I suggest you pick it up!

From Barnes and Noble: (I've never actually read a summary of The Outsiders before.  I didn't like any of them!)

Three brothers struggle to stay together after their parents' death, as they search for an identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society in which they find themselves "outsiders." 

From Shelfari:

Ponyboy lives with his two older brothers, hanging out with his gang of Greasers. The gang is like a family, they look out for each other, protecting themselves and each other from the Socs. Ponyboy cannot see why the Socs, rich west side kids, always make life miserable for the Greasers.