The publication of The Outsiders forty years ago turned the young adult publishing industry upside down, and it hasn’t been the same since. Bored with the benign themes common to teenage literature at the time, S.E. Hinton, a teenager herself, set out to write a novel that contained all the gritty realism that surrounded her at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Praised, condemned and in some cases even banned, The Outsiders opened a new genre of realistic young adult fiction, and paved the way for the authors read and loved by young people today. In addition, Hinton went on to write many more critically acclaimed young adult novels, as well as branch into picture books, middle grade chapter books, and books for adults.