Some of Tim's Stories

by S. E. Hinton

Overview

Another classic from the author of the internationally bestselling The Outsiders

Continue celebrating 50 years of The Outsiders by reading S. E. Hinton's profound and wry compilation of fourteen short stories. Terry and Mike are cousins whose families are almost seamlessly intertwined. Raised as close as brothers and living happy childhoods, neither one thinks of what can go wrong. But the unexpected deaths of both their fathers catapult their lives in two very different directions. Terry finds trouble with the law, while Mike lives his life racked with guilt and sadness. S. E. Hinton gives readers a gritty view of how one incident, one tragedy, affects two boys very differently, and changes their lives forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142411957
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	04/02/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

S. E. Hinton's career as an author began while she was still a student in high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Disturbed by the clashes of the two gangs in her high school, the Greasers and the Socs, Hinton wrote The Outsiders, an honest, sometimes shocking novel told from the point of view of a 14-year-old Greaser names Ponyboy Curtis. The Outsiders was published during Hinton's freshman year at college, and was an immediate sensation. The book was also made into a film in 1983, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring budding young stars Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, and Rob Lowe. The overnight success of The Outsiders brought a lot of pressure, resulting in a three-year-long writer's block. Her boyfriend (now husband) eventually helped break this block by suggesting she write two pages a day before going anywhere. This ultimately led to her second novel, That Was Then, This Is Now, which was also made into a film in 1985, starring Emilio Estevez. Ms. Hinton went on to write several other novels, including Rumble Fish and Tex. In 1988, she was awarded the first ever Margaret A. Edwards Award, given in honor of "an author whose book or books, over a period of time, have been accepted by young people as an authentic voice that continues to illuminate their experiences and emotions, giving insight into their lives." S. E. Hinton still lives in Oklahoma with her husband, where she enjoys writing, riding horses, and taking courses at the university.

Editorial Reviews

Hinton may never top The Outsiders. But by telling it like it was, she left a record of the way things were — a record that can’t be revised or erased, even after we’ve crushed that last Marlboro box and left it behind forever.
— The New York Times

Stephanie Zacharek

Author of the 1967 YA bestseller The Outsidersand its sequels, several children's books and the adult novel Hawkes Harbor(2004), Hinton offers a thin collection of 14 connected short-short stories that explore the divergent lives of two close cousins whose fathers are killed in car accident when the boys are adolescents. When the cousins are both 25, a drug deal goes wrong: Terry is imprisoned, while Mike gets away, living a fugitive life in Oklahoma as a bartender and bouncer. The tales move back and forth in time: "The Sweetest Sound" describes nine-year-old Mike's being awakened during the night when his father, a war vet, cries out in his sleep; while "Full Moon Birthday" finds the boys sharing Mike's first legal drink and a friendly older woman. Later stories delve into Mike's dead-end, often dangerous job at the bar, and his attempt at striking up a friendship with his pretty adult-ed instructor. Finally, Terry gets out of prison to a tense homecoming. Hinton is clearly aiming for terse, but what's here feels bare bones; interviews with the author take up more space than these plainspoken tales. (Apr.)

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Adult/High School
The stories in this book are all spare, less than 1000 words in length. Hinton takes her typical teen protagonists just a few years down the line into their mid-20s. They are a bit bitter and lacking in hope, but still retain a spark. The themes-prison rape, alcoholism, and adult despair-require maturity in a reader. Even so, there is humor and humanity, and Hinton's voice is both lucid and familiar. The book has a complicated premise involving the mysterious Tim, who is never mentioned anywhere except in the title. It's the significance this "barely there" character holds for Hinton that is intriguing and about which readers learn in the engaging interviews that make up the second half of the volume. She says, "You'd be surprised at how much you don't need in a story." Her paring down of words has resulted in tales that are immediate and gripping; they engage readers and push them to fill in the empty spaces, which are as thoughtfully crafted as the narratives. The plain-spoken language of this book makes it an excellent choice for struggling readers.
—Emma ColemanCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal