Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Be Cool, Sodapop

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

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I don’t know why I’d never previously read The Outsiders. I grew up loving another S.E. Hinton book, That was Then, This is Now. That book has some overlapping characters as The Outsiders; the Shepard brothers appear a few times, and Ponyboy is mentioned. But despite the fact that I grew up loving Bryon and Cathy, and re-read that book many times, I somehow never picked up any of Hinton’s other novels. This year, the PS Reading Challenge has a prompt to read a book […]

Ponyboy? Seriously?

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

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  I was familiar with this book as it is used extensively in junior high and high schools, especially for “reluctant readers”, but I’d never read it.  It meets the primary requirement of being short, and theoretically speaks to the “youth these days” demographic.  Except no.  Instead I got a “hello fellow kids” vibe from it.  And not just because it’s dated (1967). My main quibble is that it seemed so set up to me.  There used to be an author, Gary Paulsen, who specialized […]

Ponyboy is Still Gold

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

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I first read this book when I was a teen and remember liking it. At the time I probably liked the movie more because it starred many of the teen-crush pack. I also remember being particularly struck that S.E. Hinton had to use her initials to publish so that people would not know she was a woman and discount her work. I came across this book again in a box of books I have been saving for my kids for when they became a bit […]

Stay Gold

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I never read The Outsiders in school, and I know it’s part of the Language Arts curriculum now in some schools.  My students were reading it today for class, so I decided to join them! The kids really seemed to like it – they were all actually silently reading, which for a class of eighth graders with a substitute is fairly impressive. At first I didn’t think I was going to like it all that much.  It’s not the type of thing I usually choose […]

Stay Gold Ponyboy

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[There are some spoilers to The Outsiders, so be forewarned. I’d definitely recommend reading this book as it is an enjoyable and quick read] I never read The Outsiders in middle school or high school, even though I know many people who had to, and quite frankly, knowing how rarely I actually read or digested my assignments during that time, I’m glad I did not. The Outsiders to a younger me would’ve been a great bore, even though now it is an easy and gripping read. […]

Another Student Recommendation

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Again, when a students tells you a book is their favorite and is super excited by it, you have to read it. Ricardo told me about this one and how much he loved it. So when I found a copy, I gave it to him after reading it. Oddly, for all the reading I did as a kid, I never read this. I know it’s like the most famous YA ever and all that, but somehow it passed me by. So to start off the […]



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