Annie On My Mind

Garden, N. (1982). Annie on My Mind. NY: FSG.

Annie on My Mind is known as the book which involves a lesbian love story with a positive ending. Liza Winthrop is a 17-year old girl living in a rich neighborhood and has all her life pretty much laid out for her. She attends a private school, is student body president and has high hopes of making it into MIT to become an architect. Her whole life has been full of conventional beliefs that will challenge what she has begun to feel when she meets another teenage girl named Annie. Annie attends a public school at a poor neighborhood and hopes to fulfill her dream of becoming a singer. As the two girls spend more time together they both discover that they have stronger feelings for each other that makes both of them desire to be together. Now they both must face the guilt that society and family inflict upon their sexual orientation. Once their relationship is discovered, Liza’s guilt causes her to break the relationship. The girls later reunite while in separate colleges in the end. They learn to accept themselves for who they are and decide to continue their relationship. This book is one of the most challenged as its subversive content aims to confront the social norms and allow readers the opportunity to decide for themselves what it means to be gay. Liza’s character is not stereotypical in that she comes from a conservative family rather than from a broken home. Her life is that of the traditional American girl living up to her parents’ expectations. The fact that this book avoids having a predictable protagonist, is a plus and will allow readers to empathize with Liza all the more as they find they can relate to many of the same feelings she does. The topics of homosexuality will leave censors in an uproar, but this book is recommended for high school students going through their emotional development. This book will serve as a way to see others struggling with similar emotions, feelings and reactions.