S. E. Hinton Books in Order

Susan Eloise Hinton wrote The Outsiders at sixteen, angry that the books her school assigned had nothing to do with the teenagers around her in Tulsa; it was published when she was eighteen, under initials so reviewers would not clock the author's gender. That one book is a founding document of young-adult fiction - still assigned, still read by choice, north of fifteen million copies - and Francis Ford Coppola adapted it, then his own Rumble Fish, back to back in 1983 with one of the great young casts ever assembled. The shelf after it is short and quiet and has been closed since 2004. This page runs it in order and marks where the Tulsa books connect (1967–2004).

Where to start

The Outsiders (1967), the door - and still the best thing on the shelf. Rumble Fish (1975) second.

Does the reading order matter?

The Outsiders (1967) first - fourteen when the story starts, greasers against Socs, and the book that made teenagers a literary subject. That Was Then, This Is Now (1971) is the more mature second: a different Tulsa pair, Bryon and Mark, and the end people remember. Rumble Fish (1975) is the leanest, Motorcycle Boy's story - a Rusty-James narrator who understands less than the reader does, which is the trick. Tex (1979) is the gentlest of the four; Taming the Star Runner (1988) moves to a ranch and is the one written in third person. That is the run: five young-adult novels in twenty-one years, all Oklahoma, all boys falling toward adulthood. The two 1995 picture books are for the read-aloud shelf, and Hawke's Harbor (2004) is the odd ending - an adult gothic, a sailor and a vampire, unlike everything before it

Which one is the best?

The Outsiders (1967); Rumble Fish (1975); That Was Then, This Is Now (1971).

Covered in depth here

An 8-question quiz, reading time, club questions and verified quotes for The Outsiders.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Lois Lowry books in order, J.D. Salinger books in order, John Green books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.