Hinton considers her second book, That Was Then, This Is Now, to be better written than The Outsiders. It is about two 16-year-old friends, Mark and Byron, who are like brothers. However, they find their lives pulling apart due to involvement with girls, gangs, and drugs.
Rumble Fish, published in 1975, contains Hinton's most complex character, Motorcycle Boy. She was inspired to write this book from a saved 1967 magazine photo of a boy on a motorcycle. Rumble Fish is a story of two brothers, Rusty-James and Motorcycle Boy, who are almost always there for each other.
Hinton's next book, Tex, published in 1980, is about two delinquent brothers left on their own by a rambling father. In 1982, Disney Studios released Tex, and Hinton agreed to the movie deal with the condition that her horse got to play the lead horse in the movie.
Taming the Star Runner was book number five and a departure from her usual story-telling technique. This story about a brave young girl taming her horse is told in the third person. With the completion of this novel, Hinton took a seven-year break in her writing to concentrate on her only child, Nick.
Big David, Little David and The Puppy Sister were both published in 1995 and are children's books. Big David, Little David is a picture book that was conceived from a joke that her husband played on their child. Hinton considers The Puppy Sister to be her most autobiographical work, because it is about her son and the sibling rivalry that existed between him and their puppy.
