Customer Reviews (73) 
I loved this book!
I have read this book numerous times.The characters are rich and full of depth. The story is ever flowing with action and emotion.I highly recommend this book.
Feeling like a teenager again
S.E. Hinton successfully makes her characters independent from book to book, and this I feel is a credit to her excellent skill as an author. I enjoyed this book because it made me feel like I was a teenager again.
Nicholas R.W. Henning - Australian Author
Understated caring and males
Tex McCormick and his older brother Mason live in the small rural town of Grayville, which is twenty minutes drive out of the big city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.Tex, short for Texas, is fifteen year old and in grade nine at junior high.Mason is seventeen and in his final year at senior high.The two boys live in a small house on a property, with a barn and some fields.The property is owned by their father, but Mr. McCormick travels away on the rodeos circuit for months at a time.This year Mr. McCormick has been gone extra long, and in the back of their minds the boys wonder why?Tex is a high-spirited boy who enjoys the country life, especially horse riding, and he loves his horse Negrito dearly.Recently, though, he has been ignoring the horse a bit because he has been distracted by his friend Johnny Collins' new motorbike.The two boys ride on it to and from school, and after school they go dirt bike riding on a trail, with a gang of other young riders.One morning Tex remembers Negrito and the two go out for an early ride through the fields.Then Johnny calls in for Tex and the two disappear to school.Tex means to tell Johnny that he will not be riding the bike so much any more.He can't neglect Negrito.But when Tex arrives home he finds his brother in a strangely moody and silent mood.Finally Mason tells Tex that they are broke and he had to sell Negrito for money for food.Mason is clearly disturbed by the whole thing, but Tex cannot see this and goes wild with rage.The two physically fight and Tex looses badly, but he leaves the house declaring that he will find Negrito and bring him home.Johnny and his twelve-year-old sister Jamie arrive and are distressed at the shape they find Tex in.How can Tex really find Negrito?Will he ever make it up with Mason again?What has happened to Tex's father?
This is a story about the pain and compensations of family relationships.It is also a novel about the struggle of living, and the many mishaps and challenges that can happen along the way.There are also lesser themes of first romance, crime, drug taking, alcoholism and facing responsibility.There is a lot to think about in this book.Hinton is a famous author and this, her fourth book, is no disappointment.Shifting the action from the big city, where her first three books were set, to the country adds a freshness and spontaneity to the novel.
Hinton, although a woman, is a classic `boys' writer, and this book is no exception.The novel is filled with robust youths and men, many of whom we come to like in their various flawed, but good-hearted ways.We care about these people and wish the best for them, although of course this is not always what life brings them.I must note that the two main female characters in the novel, Jamie and Mrs. Johnson, are both feisty, capable, yet caring women.As we travel with Tex we get a definite feeling that the character is going somewhere as he learns from life.Tex moves from a childish lack of understanding to eventual insight.
As you may have noted from the above paragraphs, this book deals greatly with the emotions.Hinton writes in a way that draws the reader in through both psychological depth and physical action.From the very first chapter onwards the reader gets a sense of being drawn into drama.Yet this book is not melodramatic.The circumstances depicted seem real.The emotion, in some ways, is understated.These are male characters and their caring is hidden, as often as not, under hostility or silence.
When this book was first published it was Hinton's longest book, and these extra pages represent `more meat', greater depth and subtlety, greater maturity in writing.Probably Hinton will always be known as the author of the highly successful novel , her first book, but this novel is I think a better work.This is definitely a five star novel.
Understated caring and males
Tex McCormick and his older brother Mason live in the small rural town of Grayville, which is twenty minutes drive out of the big city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.Tex, short for Texas, is fifteen year old and in grade nine at junior high.Mason is seventeen and in his final year at senior high.The two boys live in a small house on a property, with a barn and some fields.The property is owned by their father, but Mr. McCormick travels away on the rodeos circuit for months at a time.This year Mr. McCormick has been gone extra long, and in the back of their minds the boys wonder why?Tex is a high-spirited boy who enjoys the country life, especially horse riding, and he loves his horse Negrito dearly.Recently, though, he has been ignoring the horse a bit because he has been distracted by his friend Johnny Collins' new motorbike.The two boys ride on it to and from school, and after school they go dirt bike riding on a trail, with a gang of other young riders.One morning Tex remembers Negrito and the two go out for an early ride through the fields.Then Johnny calls in for Tex and the two disappear to school.Tex means to tell Johnny that he will not be riding the bike so much any more.He can't neglect Negrito.But when Tex arrives home he finds his brother in a strangely moody and silent mood.Finally Mason tells Tex that they are broke and he had to sell Negrito for money for food.Mason is clearly disturbed by the whole thing, but Tex cannot see this and goes wild with rage.The two physically fight and Tex looses badly, but he leaves the house declaring that he will find Negrito and bring him home.Johnny and his twelve-year-old sister Jamie arrive and are distressed at the shape they find Tex in.How can Tex really find Negrito?Will he ever make it up with Mason again?What has happened to Tex's father?
This is a story about the pain and compensations of family relationships.It is also a novel about the struggle of living, and the many mishaps and challenges that can happen along the way.There are also lesser themes of first romance, crime, drug taking, alcoholism and facing responsibility.There is a lot to think about in this book.Hinton is a famous author and this, her fourth book, is no disappointment.Shifting the action from the big city, where her first three books were set, to the country adds a freshness and spontaneity to the novel.
Hinton, although a woman, is a classic `boys' writer, and this book is no exception.The novel is filled with robust youths and men, many of whom we come to like in their various flawed, but good-hearted ways.We care about these people and wish the best for them, although of course this is not always what life brings them.I must note that the two main female characters in the novel, Jamie and Mrs. Johnson, are both feisty, capable, yet caring women.As we travel with Tex we get a definite feeling that the character is going somewhere as he learns from life.Tex moves from a childish lack of understanding to eventual insight.
As you may have noted from the above paragraphs, this book deals greatly with the emotions.Hinton writes in a way that draws the reader in through both psychological depth and physical action.From the very first chapter onwards the reader gets a sense of being drawn into drama.Yet this book is not melodramatic.The circumstances depicted seem real.The emotion, in some ways, is understated.These are male characters and their caring is hidden, as often as not, under hostility or silence.
When this book was first published it was Hinton's longest book, and these extra pages represent `more meat', greater depth and subtlety, greater maturity in writing.Probably Hinton will always be known as the author of the highly successful novel , her first book, but this novel is I think a better work.This is definitely a five star novel.
Understated caring and males
Tex McCormick and his older brother Mason live in the small rural town of Grayville, which is twenty minutes drive out of the big city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.Tex, short for Texas, is fifteen year old and in grade nine at junior high.Mason is seventeen and in his final year at senior high.The two boys live in a small house on a property, with a barn and some fields.The property is owned by their father, but Mr. McCormick travels away on the rodeos circuit for months at a time.This year Mr. McCormick has been gone extra long, and in the back of their minds the boys wonder why?Tex is a high-spirited boy who enjoys the country life, especially horse riding, and he loves his horse Negrito dearly.Recently, though, he has been ignoring the horse a bit because he has been distracted by his friend Johnny Collins' new motorbike.The two boys ride on it to and from school, and after school they go dirt bike riding on a trail, with a gang of other young riders.One morning Tex remembers Negrito and the two go out for an early ride through the fields.Then Johnny calls in for Tex and the two disappear to school.Tex means to tell Johnny that he will not be riding the bike so much any more.He can't neglect Negrito.But when Tex arrives home he finds his brother in a strangely moody and silent mood.Finally Mason tells Tex that they are broke and he had to sell Negrito for money for food.Mason is clearly disturbed by the whole thing, but Tex cannot see this and goes wild with rage.The two physically fight and Tex looses badly, but he leaves the house declaring that he will find Negrito and bring him home.Johnny and his twelve-year-old sister Jamie arrive and are distressed at the shape they find Tex in.How can Tex really find Negrito?Will he ever make it up with Mason again?What has happened to Tex's father?
This is a story about the pain and compensations of family relationships.It is also a novel about the struggle of living, and the many mishaps and challenges that can happen along the way.There are also lesser themes of first romance, crime, drug taking, alcoholism and facing responsibility.There is a lot to think about in this book.Hinton is a famous author and this, her fourth book, is no disappointment.Shifting the action from the big city, where her first three books were set, to the country adds a freshness and spontaneity to the novel.
Hinton, although a woman, is a classic `boys' writer, and this book is no exception.The novel is filled with robust youths and men, many of whom we come to like in their various flawed, but good-hearted ways.We care about these people and wish the best for them, although of course this is not always what life brings them.I must note that the two main female characters in the novel, Jamie and Mrs. Johnson, are both feisty, capable, yet caring women.As we travel with Tex we get a definite feeling that the character is going somewhere as he learns from life.Tex moves from a childish lack of understanding to eventual insight.
As you may have noted from the above paragraphs, this book deals greatly with the emotions.Hinton writes in a way that draws the reader in through both psychological depth and physical action.From the very first chapter onwards the reader gets a sense of being drawn into drama.Yet this book is not melodramatic.The circumstances depicted seem real.The emotion, in some ways, is understated.These are male characters and their caring is hidden, as often as not, under hostility or silence.
When this book was first published it was Hinton's longest book, and these extra pages represent `more meat', greater depth and subtlety, greater maturity in writing.Probably Hinton will always be known as the author of the highly successful novel , her first book, but this novel is I think a better work.This is definitely a five star novel.
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