All of S.E. Hinton's YA novels are attached to each other in some way:

The Outsiders

- set in 1965 or 1966 (movie)
- Contains Tim and Curly Shepard
- mentions the Tiber Street Tigers gang

That Was Then This Is Now

- set in 1967 or so (about a year after Johnny dies)
- Bryon and Mark mention Ponyboy Curtis and he appears in the book briefly
- Bryon dates Cathy Carlson, who later dates Ponyboy Curtis
- Randy Adderson appears as a hippy in a Microbus that picks up Bryon and Mark
- Tim and Curly Shepard appear (as does their sister Angela)
- Mark's real father is a golden eyed cowboy.

Rumble Fish

- this book is set in the early to mid-seventies, before Tex. It was published in 1975, so it was definitely set previous to that.
- the gang warfare ended 3-4 years ago when the Motorcycle Boy brokered a peace - so if it's set in say 1973, then the gang warfare ended around 1969/1970.
- it mentions the Tiber Street Tigers (thus tying it to The Outsiders and the other books) as a rival gang to the Motorcycle Boy's Packers and another gang, the Devilhawks

Tex

- this book is set in 1977 or so - there's a veiled reference to Star Wars (Jamie says she thinks the "smuggler is a doll"). It was published in 1979, so it's set before that.
- Tex discovers his real father was a cowboy with golden eyes (making Tex and Mark from TWTTIN half brothers)
- Tex and Mason pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be Mark Jennings from TWTTIN (Mark had just escaped from prison and almost killed Bryon)
- One of Tex's teachers is Cathy Carlson (TWTTIN)
- Tex gets a job working for a Mr. Kencaide of Kencaide Quarter Horses.

Taming The Star Runner

- this book is set in the mid-eighties; it was published in 1988
- Casey Kencaide is a main character; her father was the Mr. Kencaide in Tex.
- There are two iffy connections - one is Travis running into two women in a bar - a redhead and a brunette (Cherry and Marcia?). No mention of their ages. A waitress named Sherry is mentioned, but it's spelled differently from Cherry Valance's "Sherri".
- The other is the bouncer at the bar Travis goes to is named Mike - maybe a reference to Mike from 'Some of Tim's Stories'?

All of the books take place in Tulsa or a suburb of some kind.

Tags: book connections, continuity
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Cookies to samanthamae for finding the connection between Rumble Fish and The Outsiders (and thus, all of Hinton's other YA books!)

If you own the copy of Rumble Fish with the two guys in leather jackets, one shooting pool, then it's page 113. Otherwise, read the first few paragraphs of Chapter 11 and you'll find this:

"About three years before, a doped-up member of the Tiber Street Tigers had wandered over onto Packer territory and got beat up and crawled back. I remember waiting around in a funny state of tenseness, like seeing lightning and waiting for thunder. That was the night of the last rumble, when Bill Braden died of a bashed-in head. I'd been sliced up real bad by a Tiger with a kitchen knife, and the Motorcycle Boy had sent a least three guys to the hospital ..."

In Rumble Fish, the gang wars are over. The Motorcycle Boy used to be President of the Packers, Weston McCauley was his lieutenant. Rusty-James was in the Little Leaguers, which he called the peewee branch of the Packers. Biff Wilcox would have been president of the Devilhawks if the gangs were still active. The book is set in the mid-seventies.

In The Outsiders, Ponyboy states:

"...but here, organized gangs are rarities - there are just small bunches of friends who stick together, and the warfare is between the social classes. A rumble, when it's called, is usually born of a grudge fight, and the opponents just happen to bring their friends along. Oh, there are a few named gangs around, like the River Kings and the Tiber Street Tigers, but here in the Southwest there's no gang rivalry."

So both books mention Tiber Street, so they DO exist in the same universe.

Tags: book connections, continuity, rumble fish
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