“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. ” —The Outsiders

I’ll level with you. It’s the movie that makes me most tempted to break my Tom Cruise boycott. Half the time, I even forget he’s in it, because he’s such a minor character. Besides, the rest of the movie is such a perfect storm of early ’80s young manhood that it’s hard to resist. It’s Rob Lowe’s first movie. Patrick Swayze’s and C. Thomas Howell’s second. The last supporting role Cruise would do until Magnolia, according to IMDb. Ralph Macchio just before he became the Karate Kid.

And, in a small role as Johnny’s nurse, the author herself. She’s had a few small roles, mostly in films based on her own books. And, okay, she’s only had four movies made based on her books, so she’s probably the least screen-related of the people I’ve covered for this column. In fact, she may well be the least prolific full stop, as she has published a total of nine books, one of which is a picture book.

Still, I read That Was Then, This Is Now a lot, back in high school. It’s a short enough book so that I could, if I didn’t have anything else to do, finish it in an afternoon. I like The Outsiders well enough, but I got to That Was Then, This Is Now first, and it stuck with me. I actually have the movie cover edition, with Emilio Estevez glowering at me, even though I still haven’t seen the movie.

Hinton has been a star of the junior high English class for decades. Actually, I reread The Outsiders, and I think read Taming the Star-Runner for the first time, for the independent study contract I did in college about banned books. While Travis of Star-Runner talks about cleaning up his characters’ language, there’s more to it than that. The violence and death, and the implications of sex, are enough for some parents. Still, her books keep getting assigned.

What everyone learns, though, is that she was sixteen when The Outsiders was published. She’s been depressing budding writers for decades with that little fact. Still, I wonder if it has something to do with why she’s barely written anything. Okay, more than Harper Lee, also assigned—and banned—for a long time now. And while she originally went by her initials because it was believed her book would be dismissed should people know a girl wrote it, she did come to relish the opportunity for privacy it gave her, that not everyone knew who S. E. Hinton really was. Maybe she’s afraid of giving up that privacy if she writes more.

And maybe a nice mid-budget teen picture could be made of Taming the Star-Runner, the only one of her YA books still unadapted for the big screen. Hell, get Matt Dillon to play the uncle; he’s about the right age. Just not Tom Cruise. He’s probably too expensive anyway.