Each year junior high students around the country read S. E. Hinton's 50-year-old tale, "The Outsiders," about life as an adolescent, and devour its universal message of acceptance and stereotype as told through the vision of a teenage author. "The Outsiders" is so effective as a young adult novel because students immediately see the connection S. E. Hinton makes to their lives. This year, the author decided to find out how his students from contrasting worlds received the book's message differently. He wanted to know, number one, did males and females react to the book differently, and number two, did students from different economic circles have altered interpretations of the ideas? He wanted to know what sections of the book affected students the most and also which of his teaching practices were most effective. He ended the novel with a survey and the results of the survey helped him to better understand how his teaching influenced students and also how to improve upon his teaching for future years. Using the results of the survey, he also examined his teaching practices, analyzed the differences among the various groups, and created a unit that not only improves students' comprehension and writing skills but also enables students to fully immerse themselves in the characters, the themes, and the ideas presented in the novel. (Contains 3 figures.)