As Banned Books Week winds to a close, I wanted to highlight a frequently challenged novel for this edition of Retro Fridays . It was hard to choose which one to talk about, as there are so many among the oft-challenged books that I love and remember fondly from my childhood or teenage years. I finally chose The Outsiders because of the particular reasons it's been challenged and because, when I read it for the first time I was a teen myself, just a little bit younger than Ponyboy and Johnny. This book had a huge impact on me at that age. I fell so deeply in love with Hinton's simple, vivid writing style. Never had teenagers like me felt so real and present on the page. I couldn't stop telling my mom about it and how good it was and why. I'm sure she still remembers those nights. And thinking about it now, I would have been devastated if someone had told me I couldn't read it or had come and taken it out of my library. I can't imagine not having read it then an...
