About+the+Author

__//Inspiration for writing://__
===" The "idea" for a story, more often that not, is something discovered by the reader while the writer continues to try to explain to herself where it came from! I am impelled toward writing by love stories, by the demands of my own imagination. I have been especially interested in writing about children as they encounter the daily surprises of life, frequent periods of loneliness, the inexplicability of events and the feelings they evoke. " - S.E. Hinton ===

__//Neat Fact:// __
===Hinton wrote __The Outsiders__ when she was just a junior in high school! It was first published by Viking press when she was a freshman in college. ===

__//Plot Preview:// __
===Ponyboy and his two brothers—Darrel (Darry), who is 20, and Sodapop, who is 16—have recently lost their parents in an automobile accident. Pony and Soda are allowed to stay under Darry’s guardianship as long as they all behave themselves. The boys are greasers, a class term that refers to the young men on the East Side, the poor side of town. The greasers’ rivals are the Socs, short for Socials, who are the “West-side rich kids.” ===