The Outsiders

This is the first time I've read the book cover to cover and I really enjoyed it. I was surprised at how much sensitivity there was between Ponyboy, his family, and the gang. It was very moving story, the characters were real, and there were some good messages about social hierarchies and the nature of people. There was very little adult presence in the novel, even the Curtis' parents were a distant memory even though they had died less than a year before. The teens in the novel bonded together and lived life without very much parental influence, except for Darry who was trying to be a good role model. Hinton said that when she wrote the novel she felt as though adults had no idea what was going on and it was interesting to see the inside world of the greasers.

It was very sad and you can't help but cry a little when Johnny says, "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold..." (148) and then dies (sorry if I ruined the book for anyone). It was also sad, but in a good way, when Ponyboy realizes that Darry is just trying to make sure he grows up with chances for opportunity and this may help some teenagers understand why parents can be hard on them sometimes. I really enjoyed reading this novel and all of the emotions it stirs up with the love between characters.

I also liked the background behind the story; the author wrote the novel when she was fifteen and based some of it on real life events. I also like the unusual names, Ponyboy is strange but I like it.

Teen Section at the Bookstore

I've visited the teen section at Chapters a lot in the past month and what I have noticed is that most of the shelves are being overrun with supernatural fiction: vampires, zombies, witches and others. Most of the classic or curriculum literature is hidden from plain view and you really have to search for it to find it. In opposition the books that stand out the most are these supernatural fiction books, especially all of the vampire series. I also noticed that a lot of the older supernatural type books are being promoted because the genre is so popular right now. But, maybe I am just noticing them all because I actively look for them. I see a lot of red, black, and sexy/dark looking characters on the covers. I know that a lot of young men read these types of novels too but it seems like most of them are made for young women.

I havn't visited the young adult section in the public library for quite some time so I wonder what it looks like in comparison to the bookstore. When I frequented the library as a youth wasn't much in the way of display in the young adult section and most of the books were very used looking. It is nice to see that such a rise in young adult literature but I what exactly are they reading?

Teenagers Talking about Reading and Libraries

I found it interesting that although a few of the participants said that they didn't like reading, that they actually did have reading materials that they liked and enjoyed. It also seemed like many of the participants associated reading specifically with novels, and although they read other materials (like manga or websites), they did not consider these to be reading materials. I wasn't really surprised that given the choice most participants preferred other activities like sports to reading.

I was surprised to find out that most of the participants found the books they read in their homes or at the bookstore instead of the library. But, I can understand this. I associate teenagers with not having a lot of money to spend, but when I was a teenager I think I preferred to buy my own books because I was afraid of late fees. I also liked to build my own library at home.

I didn't find the section on what teenagers are reading very useful. It reported that teenagers read a wide variety of materials but I felt like this was to be expected. Snowball does comment that this research is preliminary and it would be interesting to see the results produced from more investigation.

I thought it was funny how the word "like" was omitted from direct quotes and how "most participants had the habit of inserting"(107) it. I'm not sure if this was necessary to say because it makes the participants look very stereotypical. I also was unsure why Snowball brought up race when discussing manga, I'm not sure this was very relevant to her overall study.