Personal Choice #1: The Outsiders

 

Author: S. E. Hinton

Title: Outsiders

Genre: YA Fiction 

Bibliographic Data in MLA format: Hinton, S. E. Outsiders. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2019.

Recommended Grade Level(s): 7-8

Number of Pages: 192

*Brief, concise plot description (no more than one paragraph): 

The Outsiders is a story about two gangs in Oklahoma, the Greasers and the Socials, and their combat that ends in the death of one of the members. This forces some of the boys to go into hiding and deal with the complexities of life and familial conflict that makes this a coming-of-age novel for the young boys in the Greasers gang. 

Possible Teaching Concerns (may refer back to the text(s) used in class): 

This novel does have violence, gang violence, familial aggression, smoking, references to sex, and peer pressure. However, these themes are not too dominant and are easily talkable with students. If anything, this would be a good place to talk to students about casual smoking during this time period and other behaviors that teenagers exhibit here and how they may be harmful. 

Personal Reaction to/and/or Evaluation of novel: 

I loved this novel when I read it in seventh grade and I love it now. I think this story is far enough away from the norm of my daily life to captivate my attention, but close enough in themes like identity and belonging to allow me to relate to it and enjoy it from that perspective as well. I think students should read this novel because it teaches them good lessons about perseverance during hardship. 

Canonical work with which to juxtapose this novel & a brief (one paragraph) description of the rationale to connect the 2 works: