Annie On My Mind

Garden, Nancy. (1982). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Highly recommended, 8th-12th grade
It is a cold fall day when Liza notices a beautiful voice coming from another room in the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art. The voice belongs to Annie, a girl Liza’s same age, both high school seniors. They click immediately. After spending another hour together at the museum, the girls exchange phone numbers. Liza finally gets the courage to call Annie after a week. The girls continue to meet over the coming months. They develop a love for each other that they must keep secret.

Over spring break, Liza is pet-sitting for two teachers. She asks Annie to meet her there each day. On the last day of the break, the school secretary, who is also a neighbor, discovers Liza and Annie’s relationship, and reveals it to the headmaster, who threatens to destroy Liza’s college career at MIT. Liza and Annie find sympathy and acceptance from the two teachers who recall what is was like when they first met. Annie’s parents never find out about the lesbian relationship. Liza’s parents are unhappy about the situation but seem to be coming around to accept their daughter. The books ends with Liza and Annie trying to keep in touch as they go off to college for the fall.
*Does not portray any detail of a physical relationship, only implications.
Review by Ms. Wilson