Best Books About Wholesome Young Adult Fiction by S. E. Hinton

S. E. Hinton changed young adult literature forever. She was sixteen years old when she began writing The Outsiders, and when it was published in 1967 - under her initials, because publishers worried that a girl could not write convincingly about boys and gangs - it created the modern young adult novel: realistic, honest and written from inside the teenage experience. Hinton’s books are about class, loyalty, violence and the search for identity, and they treat their young readers with complete respect. And they are clean: there is no explicit content in anything she wrote.

For readers and parents who want young adult fiction that is honest without being graphic and moral without being preachy, Hinton is an essential author. This guide walks through her work in a practical order.

Why Hinton Is the Mother of Modern Young Adult Fiction#

Before The Outsiders, books for teenagers were mostly “problem novels” - moralistic stories in which the teenage characters learned lessons from adults. Hinton changed the formula: her books are written from inside the teenage experience, in the voice of a teenager, about the things teenagers actually care about. Her subject is the divide between the haves and the have-nots, the “greasers” and the “socs,” and her argument is radical: that the kids on the wrong side of the tracks are not delinquents to be fixed but people to be understood.

Her books are also clean. Hinton writes about violence honestly - her characters fight, and people die - but the violence is never gratuitous, and there is no explicit content anywhere in her canon. Her books are assigned in schools across America, and they remain as powerful today as they were fifty years ago.

The Essential Start: The Outsiders#

The Outsiders (1967)#

The book that created modern YA fiction: Ponyboy Curtis, a fourteen-year-old greaser living in Tulsa with his two older brothers after their parents’ death, narrates the story of the rivalry between the greasers - poor kids from the east side - and the socs, the rich kids from the west side. One night, a fight goes too far, and Ponyboy and his friend Johnny are forced to run - and the novel becomes a meditation on loyalty, violence and the meaning of being an outsider.

It is the essential Hinton: the novel is short, intense and told in a voice that has never aged - Ponyboy’s narration is funny, honest and heartbreaking. The famous line, “Stay gold, Ponyboy,” has entered the language, and the novel’s portrait of the bond between the greasers - the “family” they make for each other - is one of the most moving in American literature. The book contains fighting and some violence, but nothing graphic and no explicit content. If you read only one Hinton book, this is the one.

The Outsiders, and Why It Changed Everything#

The genius of The Outsiders is its voice. Ponyboy is not a problem to be solved; he is a person - a boy who loves movies and books, who watches sunsets and recites poetry, and who happens to be a greaser. By writing from inside Ponyboy’s head, Hinton did something revolutionary: she made the reader see the “delinquents” as fully human. The novel’s famous closing lines - “I guess that’s what it means to be gold, to be somebody who matters” - are an argument that every kid matters, and the book has been changing readers’ minds since 1967. It is one of the most taught novels in American schools, and its moral seriousness is why: it is a book about violence that argues, finally, for peace, and about class that argues, finally, for common humanity.

If You Want the Companion Story: That Was Then, This Is Now#

That Was Then, This Is Now (1971)#

Hinton’s second novel: Bryon and Mark, two teenage friends who grew up together on the wrong side of Tulsa, are now sixteen - and drifting apart. Bryon is beginning to see the consequences of their life of petty crime and fighting; Mark, wild and amoral, does not want to see anything. The novel follows the dissolution of their friendship, and it is one of the most honest portraits of growing apart in YA literature.

It is the essential read for the friendship: the novel is darker than The Outsiders - its ending is genuinely bleak - but it is just as honest, and its portrait of Bryon’s moral awakening is moving. The book is entirely clean, and it shows Hinton’s range: she is not repeating herself but deepening her subject.

If You Want the Epic: Rumble Fish#

Rumble Fish (1975)#

Hinton’s most stylized novel: Rusty-James, a fourteen-year-old gang leader in a run-down city, worships his older brother, the Motorcycle Boy - a legend in their neighborhood, a boy who is beautiful, strange and doomed. The novel follows Rusty-James’s desperate attempts to be like his brother, and its portrait of the Motorcycle Boy - who sees the world in black and white and wants to set the fish free - is one of the most haunting in YA fiction.

It is the essential read for the style: the novel is short, elliptical and written like a memory - the narrative is fragmented, the colors are drained, the symbolism is deliberate - and it was adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola. It is entirely clean, and it is Hinton’s most artistic book.

If You Want the Coming-of-Age: Tex#

Tex (1979)#

Hinton’s warmest novel: Tex McCormick, fifteen, lives with his older brother Mason on a rundown ranch in Oklahoma; their father is a rodeo man who is always gone. The novel follows a year in Tex’s life - the horses, the girl he likes, the trouble he gets into, the truths he learns about his family - and it is Hinton’s most purely enjoyable book.

It is the essential read for the warmth: the novel is funny, tender and full of the love of horses and the land, and its portrait of the two brothers - Mason, who has sacrificed his own dreams to raise Tex, and Tex, who is only beginning to understand that - is deeply moving. The book is entirely clean, and it shows a softer side of Hinton.

If You Want the Later Novels: Taming the Star Runner#

Taming the Star Runner (1988)#

Hinton’s most recent novel for teenagers: Travis, a fifteen-year-old who has been expelled from school, is sent to live with his uncle on a horse farm. He does not want to be there; he wants to be a writer and to escape the violence of his past. The novel follows his struggle to tame both the wild horse, Star Runner, and his own anger.

It is the essential read for the theme: the novel is about the discipline of art and the discipline of caring for animals - two kinds of taming - and its portrait of Travis learning to write is drawn from Hinton’s own experience. The book is entirely clean, and it is a fitting capstone to her YA career: a book about a boy who learns that the wildest things - horses, anger, talent - are tamed not by force but by patience and love.

A Complete Reading Order for Hinton’s Wholesome Young Adult Fiction#

Here is a suggested path through Hinton’s best work:

• Start with The Outsiders for the essential introduction.
• Move to That Was Then, This Is Now for the friendship.
• Try Rumble Fish for the style.
• Read Tex for the warmth.
• End with Taming the Star Runner for the theme.

For more clean fiction in this spirit, our clean books for teens themes, values and reading notes gathers young adult novels that are honest without being explicit, and our clean mystery books themes, values and reading notes extends the shelf into stories that are suspenseful without being graphic. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another book to discover.

Why Hinton’s Books Still Matter#

Hinton’s books matter because they were the first to take teenage life seriously - and they still do it better than most. Her subject is the same in every novel: the divide between the kids who have and the kids who don’t, and the loyalty that holds the have-nots together. Her greasers are not stereotypes; they are people - funny, wounded, fierce and loyal - and her novels argue, without ever preaching, that every kid matters, that every life is worth understanding. That argument has never stopped being necessary.

Her cleanliness is part of her power. Hinton writes about violence - her books are full of fights, and people die - but she never glamorizes it and never makes it graphic. The violence in The Outsiders is presented as what it is: a tragedy that happens when kids have nothing else. And her books contain no explicit content - the romance, when it comes, is tender and chaste. Parents and teachers trust her books precisely because they are honest without being corrupting: they show the truth of teenage life and still leave the reader hopeful.

Why Hinton Is the Essential Author for Honest, Clean YA Fiction#

S. E. Hinton created modern young adult fiction when she was sixteen years old, and she did it without a single page a reader would need to skip. The Outsiders is the essential introduction - the most taught, most loved YA novel in America; That Was Then, This Is Now and Rumble Fish deepen the vision; Tex is the warmth; Taming the Star Runner is the capstone. Every one of them is clean - honest about violence without being graphic, serious about adolescence without being cynical, and moral without being preachy. For readers and parents who want young adult fiction that respects young people and contains nothing to explain away, Hinton is the essential discovery - an author who proved that the truest books about teenagers are the ones written from inside their world, and that the cleanest books can also be the most powerful. Start with Ponyboy, and you will understand why a generation of readers has stayed gold.