Book Review: The Outsiders

      The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, is about a kid named Pony Boy, who is a greaser. A greasers are people who are kind of like gangs, but not. They are more about family than anything, most of them do rob stores, get into fights, and have greasy hair, but not all. In this story Pony Boy is faced with a difficult situation. Him and his friend Johnny are jumped by a bunch of socs. When they were jumped Pony Boy was being drowned in the pond, Johnny freaked out and stabbed the soc that was drowning Pony. After he stabbed him, all the rest of the kids ran, and the two their friend Dallas's house for help. At this house, Dallas gave them warm clothes, money, and a gun. He told them to hop on a train and jump off when they came too an abandoned church. They stayed at this church until the news about the murder had settled down a bit. A week had gone by, and they were still at the church, but that day Dallas had drove up and got them. He took them to breakfast, and when they were returning to the church to grab their stuff, it was on fire, and their was little kids that had wandered off from a  picnic in there. These kids had to be saved so Johnny and Pony Boy ran into the church to try and save these kids. They succeeded in getting the kids out but when they were leaving the church a piece of huge wood landed on Johnny, he was seriously injured.When they returned to the town they were proclaimed as heroes, but there was a problem, Johnny wasn't doing to well. After just a couple of days he died. The greasers were going to have one last rumble against the socs. Before the rumble Pony wasn't feeling to well, but still wanted to fight and did. This probably wasn't a good idea because, although they won the fight, Pony was put into a coma. After he came out of the coma he didn't remember to much about it. Another thing Pony Boy was facing was being separated from his brothers. Too not be separated he had to win his court battle against the socs. He went to the court and the socs dropped all charges and Pony got to stay with his brothers.
     One of the main themes in the book is brotherhood. The whole book is about brotherhood, but an example of it is shown when, even though he didn't like them, Dallas provided Pony Boy and Johnny with stuff to survive. Another example is when Pony Boy's brothers stayed in the hospital with him for a week when he was in his coma. Those are some examples that I think shows brotherhood.
    I would recommend this book to other 7th grade readers because, it is a great book that gives you a different point of view on someone else's life. It is full of adventure and blood. Those are the reasons I would recommend this book to other readers.


I got this photo from http://studentwriter.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/the-outsiders.jpg