The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Happy Banned Book Week!

According to USA Today, Banned Books Week is a moment to reflect on the free word. Many libraries and schools face book challenges and bans that come from people in the community that feel these books aren’t suitable for young people to read.

Here I am going to call out one of my favorite banned books: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton!

This book was required reading for my eighth-grade class. Most of the people that I talked to loved the book. My friend, who was not a big reader, loved the book, as well. The Outsiders is a 5-star book, in my opinion.

This book was banned or challenged for the following reasons: strong language, underage drinking and drug use, gang violence, exhibit of family dysfunction, and slang usage.

The Outsiders has found family and a really strong cast. This book does have some heavy themes, but S.E. Hinton dealt with them beautifully. For more information about the book visit: Banned Books Awareness: The Outsiders – Banned Books Awareness (deepforestproductions.com)

The Outsiders was published in 1967. The Outsiders movie was released in 1983 and features Ralph Maccio, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, and Tom Cruise. More recently, The Outsiders has turned into a Broadway musical, which Angelina Jolie is a producer on.

Summary from Goodreads:

The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for “social”) has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he’s always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers–until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy’s skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.