My Love Affair with S.E. Hinton

I discovered S. E. Hinton when I was around 13 years old. I read all four of her books in a row, and then I went back and re-read them. I read The Outsiders maybe twenty or more times over the next two or three years. I had the book memorized. I read That was Then, This is Now nearly as many times.

My own ultra-feminine XX13 was assigned The Outsiders as an English class reading assignment. To my surprise, she loved it! She got the same look on her face when she talked about it that I used to get on my face. She loved the boys in the book, and got a little crush on Ponyboy. (That ended when she saw the movie, as, after you see Rob Lowe in nothing but a towel, there really is no-one else for you but Soda-Pop.) She is such a fashion minded, giddy gossipy girl, that I never expected her to be so invested in the lives of boys from early '60's Oklahoma. It is even more astounding when you consider she is not much of a reader. She averages one to two books a year. When I realized how much she was enjoying it, I bought her That was Then, This is Now. She had to finish another book that she had been working on since February. She started reading it yesterday, and she couldn't put it down. Wow. I can't even tell you what that means to me.

She came in to the bonus room where I was sewing and curled up on the couch to do her homework. She finished her math and said,

"Now I can read my book." I have never heard, nor have I ever expected to hear those words out of her mouth. She would stop every once in a while to tell me how much she liked the way S. E. Hinton wrote. She laughed out loud, and would read passages she liked to me. She became almost giddy when Ponyboy, from The Outsiders made an appearance.

"It's like seeing an old friend," She said. Of course I knew exactly what she was talking about. It's like introducing my daughter to my old friends, the ones who were there with me and for me. These old friends have been frozen in time, held as teenagers, able to give my daughter the gifts they gave me. I wish S. E. Hinton knew what she has done for me. First, when I was a teenager, already an avid reader, and now, she has ignited a love of reading in a girl whom I never thought would love reading. Thank God for her.