Rumble Fish By: S.E. Hinton

Rumble Fish is a great book for teens to read. It is a book about younger teens joining gangs. The main character in the book is Rusty-James who is a high school boy that is in a gang and likes to get into fights. Also there is a guy named the Motorcycle Boy who is Rusty's idol. Some minor characters in the book include Steve who is the best friend of Rusty-James, another character is Smokey who is another good friend of Rusty-James, also Biff who wanted to beat up Rusty-James because they are in different gangs, and always are looking to fight each other.

In the story Rumble Fish, Rusty James is a greaser who has a lot of fights in and out of school. He always sees the Motorcycle Boy and whenever Rusty is in a big fight, the Motorcycle Boy always helps him out. Rusty isn't a good kid. He has a police record and has been suspended from school for possession of a knife. Bad things can happen to you if you don't have a knife in certain situations in his neighborhood. For example, Rusty was in a fight with Biff and Biff had a knife but Rusty didn't have a knife. Nobody in his gang had a knife, so Rusty lost. Then he met the Motorcycle Boy and everything was back to normal until the big fight. Rusty got stabbed with the knife, and knocked out. Usually the Motorcycle Boy would help him out, but instead he wasn't there, nowhere to be seen. Rusty was put in the hospital for his stab wound. The main conflict in the story is Rusty James, and his fighting all of the time. It isn't good for him or his reputation. Rusty usually wins and someone always is looking to beat him at his own game, which is fighting, Rusty's specialty. The conflict is resolved when Rusty James is in a fight against another greaser and the Motorcycle Boy isn't there to save Rusty. After all of this happens, everyone starts making fun of Rusty. The mysterious thing is that the Motorcycle Boy is never seen again. Now Rusty has no friend's what so ever. And his gang lifestyle did not pay off at all. Instead of being cool he turned out to be the fool in the story.

I would recommend this book to any teen. It is a great sequal to the Outsiders and has a lot of action in it. It has the excitement of gangs but there is also a lesson to be learned in the story as well. It does not set a good example for kids but it is exciting to read about. Over all I would say that the book was great and I would read it again.