If there’s one way the daughter does not take after me (besides that whole American Idol thing), it’s that she does not like to read. She says that reading just isn’t “her thing” and that she should not be forced to pick up a book for pleasure when she has to read so much “junk” for school. She loves to write, though, so I let the reading thing go sometimes.
So imagine my surprise and delight when one day she comes home from school all excited about a book she’s reading for English class. She’s so excited, in fact, that she wants me to buy her the book because she is sure that she will want to read it over and over.
I ask her what novel has her so excited to read and she pulls a well-worn paperback out of her bag. My jaw drops.
“The Outsiders!?!”
“Oh, you’ve heard of it?”
“Heard of it? That was my favorite book in eighth grade! I did a spectacular report on it.”
“Oh.My.God.Mom. I’m in eighth grade. And I’m going to do a report on it, too! I had no idea the book was so old.”
She pronounces the word old as if what she really means is so ancient as to be from the time of dinosaurs.
She’s already read half the book in school, so we reminisce over some of the scenes and characters. I tell her about the movie version. Another Oh.My.God. moment.
I pull up the IMDB page for The Outsiders.
“Who are these people?”
“That was an amazing cast for that time. They were all the hottest stars of the day.”
“Who is Francis Ford Coppola?”
I explain the legacy of Mr. Coppola. She is not impressed.
“So who are these actors? Oh.My.God!” (she says that a lot)
“What?”
“That’s Tom Cruise! He was in that stupid movie.”
“He sure was. Uhh..which one are you talking about?”
She gives a convoluted, lengthy description and I realize after a few minutes she’s talking about Legend.
“So who are these other people? What were they in? Are they still famous?”
I explain about C. Thomas Howell and how he ended up in one of the worst movies of all time. I tell her about Ralph Macchio, fellow Long Islander. She gets him confused with Scott Baio of Joanie Loves Chachi fame (too much Nick at Nite, I guess), and the recognizes him from Karate Kid, which she deems the dumbest movie ever and does a sarcastic wax on, wax off thing. She sort of recognizes Patrick Swayze and Emilio Estevez. She thinks Rob Lowe is cute in a girly kind of way, whatever that means. Then I pull up a photo of Matt Dillon from his Outsider days.
Her eyes light up. She’s got this dreamy look on her face that I haven’t seen since the first time she fell in love , with this guy.
“Who does he play in the movie?”
“Dally.”
“Oh! Dally is my favorite! What else was he in?”
I have to think about my answer because I’m certainly not going to tell her about Drugstore Cowboy or Wild Things. I think about forcing her to watch Singles. Wait, what about…..
“Over the Edge. One of the greatest movies about teenage rebellion ever made.”
“About what?”
“Never mind. I’ll just rent it for you someday. Matt Dillon looked really good in that movie.”
“He is sooo cute.”
“Hon, he’s like 45+ years old now. You can’t have a crush on this guy. It’s just not right.”
“Eeww, like I would like a guy that old! I just like the young him.”
“So, you have a retroactive crush on Matt Dillon?”
“Huh?
“Never mind.”
A couple of days later, she has finished the book – twice – and watched the movie seven times. She aced the book test. And now we have a little inside thing between us. Instead of saying goodnight to her, I say, in a wry sort of way, Stay gold, Ponyboy. She laughs. And I go sit on the couch and and think about Ponyboy and SodaPop and feel like I’m in eighth grade again, until I recall the above conversation and feel so, so old.
3 responses to Eighth Grade Reading Level
I really liked The Outsiders book. Our teacher read it to us in 5th grade I think. We all went out to the play ground to be “greasers” and “socs”. I was never sure whether it was pronounced “Socks” or “Soshes” at the time. And being from the pacific northwest, the whole hispanic angle kind of went right by me at the time.
Now that my son is 12 I’m trying to decide if some of my favorite cyber punk novels are appropriate for him. I did warn him that science fiction novels depictions of sex might be a little skewed due to the authers probably being hopeless nerds.
Eighth Grade Reading Level
Good grief, I laughed to read your story of the book report on “The Outsiders”.
That must be a heck of a popular book, because I myself had to do a review on it too, and I’m from the Highlands of Scotland!
I loved your story. The Outsiders was my favorite book for such a long time, and of course, being an 80′s kid, I loved the movie.
I just can’t believe the thing is 28-years-old! My son is only two, but I look forward to the day when he meets Pony Boy and Dally. I think it’s one of those books that will last as long as there are rebellious teenagers, which of course, is forever.
The thing that still amazes me is that S.E. Hinton was so young when she wrote it.
Oh, and, Matt Dillon is still hot!
Eighth Grade Reading Level
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