Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

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

Liza Winthrop lives in an area of New York City where affluent families live. Lisa attends a small private school and wants to be an architect. Annie Kenyon lives in a much poorer area of New York City, and attends a very rough public school. Annie wants to study vocal music after high school. They meet in a large museum and grow to be close friends. Their friendship stirs strong emotional feelings towards each other, and eventually both admit that they love each other. Their love for each other becomes public and causes problems for those around them. After going off to college their love for each other still grows even though they have little contact. The story ends with the girls reaffirming their love for each other. This book has strong feelings of love develop, and was told from the memories of Lisa Winthrop, of how feelings grow from friendship to deep love. The book shows feelings of anxiety, fear, joy, and sadness that both girls experience. This book may help young adults who are confused about their feelings for the same sex. Young adults may read this book in an attempt to understand their possible feelings. The author deals with this in a positive and caring way. At the end, there’s an interview with the author. She tells of her realization that she was gay and how that affected her. She talks about the lack of gay literature for young people, which is why she wrote the book. During the development of adolescents, they are adapting to their bodies and defining their sex roles, and this book helps bring this to light. Here’s a book trailer: https://youtu.be/ppRtHPFXzzk