THE OUTSIDERS<i> by S. E. Hinton (Dell: $3.25)</i>

Written when she was only 16, “The Outsiders” was S. E. Hinton’s first novel. It set the pattern for her later works, which all focus on disaffected, underclass teen-agers in the Southwest. The hero of the story, Ponyboy Curtis, who conceals a poetic soul under a self-styled “greaser” exterior, finds himself drawn into a gang war that teaches him the difference between the right and wrong side of the tracks. “The Outsiders” is currently the basis of a show on Fox television and was made into a feature film by Francis Coppola; these adaptations should encourage teen-agers to read the work of this excellent juvenile novelist.