I spent three hours this weekend reading "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. My 8th grade son had to read it for his Language Arts class; he really liked it and wanted me to read it, too. It was fine, I suppose. I understand why he liked it - it was a very easy read with male characters. I thought it was simple, and that the plot developed in unrealistic ways. I looked up information on the book, and understand that it was written by a 16 year old, so the simplistic style makes sense, and I appreciate the "screw you" to the English teacher that gave her an F. I guess the best thing I can say about it is that it was good enough to make my son actually want to do his homework.
