Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

Garden, N. (1982). Annie on my mind. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux.

Liza Winthrop falls in love with Annie Kenyon. They first meet at the Museum in New York. They exchange telephone numbers. Liza is seventeen and lives in an environment that doesn't accept homosexuality, they initially have to hide away their feelings. They attend different schools. One day, Liza agrees to look after her teacher's cats while they are out on vacation. Liza sees this as an opportunity for her and Annie to spend some private time together. 

One day, Annie figures out from the books on their shelves that Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson are gay. The discovery liberalizes the two girls and after fooling around, they fall onto Ms. Steven and Ms. Widmer's bed and kiss. Much later they are woken up by Sally and her very religious teacher, Ms. Baxter. She barges into the home and demands Annie to come down. Moments later Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Widmer are standing by the doorway staring at each other, Mrs. Baxter accuses them of meddling with minors. She leaves with Sally and utters to them that she will be reporting them to the school.

Liza has no choice but to tell her parents about her sexuality. Her mother is not as supportive as her father. Annie and Liza visit Ms. Widmer and Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson and they happily announce that they are retiring and that their dismissal from their jobs at school was probably the best thing that could have happened. They are also very supportive of Annie and Liza's relationship. The novel ends as Liza and Annie go their separate ways, but Liza calls Annie from college. They haven't spoken in months, but arrange to see each other during the holidays. They hang up by expressing their love to one another.

This story could be used by a reading high school teacher to teach point of view. The novel begins in the third-person point of view and then continues from Liza's point of view as she tells the story of Annie and herself. It ends again in the third person. This novel could also be used to promote reading banned books during banned books' week.

This reminds me that half way through the story, Liza recounts the story by Plato. Plato wrote that everyone used to be attached to another person called their other half, which could have been the same sex or the opposite sex. Since then it is said that the role of each human is to find his or her other half. Liza is fond of this story, not only believing that Annie is her other half, but that it proves that it is all right to be gay. High school students ages 14 through 18 could relate to the themes involved in this novel. If you like this novel, perhaps you will also enjoy reading Keeping You a Secret  by Julie Anne Peters. This novel consists of 263 enchanting pages.