Books like The Outsiders

If The Outsiders stayed with you, these share its feel: family, tenderness and identity. Each comes with a real page, so you can tell in a minute.

About The Outsiders · S. E. Hinton

1.The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger, 1951

Also identity and tenderness. A prep-school dropout drifts through New York for a few days, allergic to phonies and desperate to protect someone younger.

Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye, and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.

Excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger 1951. Quoted for discovery. Source Rights & removals
2.The Book Thief

Markus Zusak, 2005

Also tenderness and defiance. A girl steals books in Nazi Germany while Death, tired and curious, narrates her story. A voice-driven novel about words, courage, and ordinary people.

I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

Excerpt from The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, Knopf Books for Young Readers 2005. Quoted for discovery. Source Rights & removals
3.Charlotte's Web

E. B. White, 1952

Also tenderness and friendship. A pig, a spider, and a barnyard full of voices: a children's book about friendship, words, and the saving grace of ordinary attention.

It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.

Excerpt from Charlotte's Web, E. B. White, HarperCollins 1952. Quoted for discovery. Source Rights & removals
4.The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Ann Brashares, 1998

Also friendship and tenderness. Four friends navigate pivotal summer changes, secret friendships, and the shared mystery of a simple pair of denim pants.

The pants clung to Lena’s waist and followed the line of her hips. They held close to the shape of her thighs and fell exactly to the tops of her feet. When she took two steps forward, they appeared to hug each of her muscles as they shifted and moved. Carmen gazed in wonder at how different was their effect from Lena’s bland uniform of J. Crew khakis.

Excerpt from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares, Delacorte Press 1998. Quoted for discovery. Source Rights & removals
5.Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck, 1937

Also tenderness and grief. Two migrant workers drift through Depression-era California, trading a shared dream of a small farm against the cost of staying together.

They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head.

Excerpt from Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck, Vicens Vives 1937. Quoted for discovery. Source Rights & removals
6.The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky, 1999

Also friendship. A high-school freshman writes letters about first friends, first love and the things adults won't explain, in a voice that makes adolescence feel less lonely.

It’s just that I don’t want to be somebody’s crush. If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don’t want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it too. I want them to be able to do whatever they want around me. And if they do something I don’t like, I’ll tell them.

Excerpt from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky, Brand: Books on Tape 1999. Quoted for discovery. Source Rights & removals
7.Holes

Louis Sachar, 1998

Also family. A boy sent to a desert camp for delinquent boys digs holes all day and slowly uncovers a family curse, a buried outlaw, and a history that won't stay buried.
8.To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, 1960

Also family and tenderness. A girl watches her small Alabama town put a man on trial, and learns in one long summer how decent people can be cowards.
9.The Chosen

Chaim Potok, 1967

Also friendship and identity. Two Brooklyn boys—one a Hasidic rabbi's son, one a yeshiva teacher's son—form a friendship across rival worlds of faith, Talmud and America.
10.The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan, 1989

Also family and tenderness. Four mothers, four daughters and a mahjong table, where immigrant hopes land on American-born children who cannot quite hear them.
11.Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lisa See, 2005

Also friendship and grief. Two girls in nineteenth-century China become laotong, sworn sisters for life, and write to each other in a secret script most men cannot read.
12.The Road

Cormac McCarthy, 2006

Also family and tenderness. A father and son walk south through a burned America with a shopping cart, a pistol and the rule to keep going.