Annie on My Mind

Garden, Nancy (1982). Annie on My Mind.  NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 234 pages.

Liza lives in Brooklyn Heights, an upscale area of town with her mother, father, and brother, Chad.  She goes to private school, Foster Academy and wants to go to MIT to study architecture.  She meets Annie at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Annie is from Brooklyn, and lives with her mother, father, and Nana.  Annie goes to public school and hopes to get into UC Berkley and continue her studies with singing.

The two girls do not have close relationships or distinct friendship with other teenagers their ages in their respective schools.  After they have been hanging out together for a few weeks Annie admits that she is gay and falling in love with Liza.  Liza is suspended for not reporting another students dangerous behavior at school and while she is spending her suspension away from school she realizes that she is also in love with Annie, but had not known her sexual orientation before becoming friends with her.

Shortly after her suspension, Liza is cat-watching for two of her teachers who are on vacation.  Since she has the house to herself and time off from school she spends all day, every day with Annie at the teacher’s house.  The girls take this time to get to explore their relationship and get to know each other better.  It is at this time that an administrator from Liza’s school realizes what she is doing and reports her to another administrator.

Liza must tell her parents what happened between herself and Annie.  She must also face the Board of Trustees and explain herself.  The Board finds her outside activities to be irrelevant, but fire the two teachers because of their sexual orientation.  The two teachers, Annie and Liza talk about the situation and how Liza and Annie should not let this negative experience dampen their love for one another.  Liza is eventually allowed to go back to her school and finish out her senior year before heading to MIT.

While Liza is at MIT she allows herself to think about Annie and the reader discovers that they are reading a letter that has yet to be mailed to Annie from Liza.  Liza calls Annie from her dorm and hopes to reunite with her over winter break.

Hook: This book is a real story about two females that fall in love with each other and the trials and tribulations they must face together and separate in order to overcome negative feedback from their families, their schoolmates, and Liza’s educators.  I was disappointed with Mrs. Pointdexter, the headmistress of the school, who continually looks for ways to challenge the children that go to the school she is in charge of, as well as, critique the relationship of Liza and Annie although it has nothing to do with their schoolwork.  The book was published in the early 80s, but treats homosexuality as something dirty, or a disease.  I think this book is a good gateway book for teens who might be struggling with their own sexual identity.  Also, because almost 30 years have passed since the first publishing of this book a reader can see the significant strides that society has taken in respect to GLB rights.