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Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Nancy Garden Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2007-02-20 ISBN: 0374400113 Number of pages: 272 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Book Reviews of Annie on My MindBook Review: Courtesy of Teens Read Too Summary: 5 Stars
Nancy Garden's ANNIE ON MY MIND, originally published in 1982, was recently re-released. (It includes an interview with the author herself.)
The book represents an early example of realistic young adult fiction depicting a lesbian relationship between two high school seniors. It is still a fitting portrayal for today's teens.
Liza and Annie meet in a New York museum and develop a fast friendship. Both seem to realize there is something different about their relationship, but admitting that at the start is difficult for both. The story is told as Annie remembers it, and focuses mostly on her struggle to accept the facts she is learning about herself.
The book's first half takes the reader into the growing friendship between the girls. There is considerable time spent describing how they discover their common interests and the activities they find to spend time together. The girls come from different backgrounds - Liza attends a relatively sheltered, private school currently struggling with financial difficulties, while Annie attends public school and is faced with drugs, violence, and other social problems public schools must deal with both then and now.
As the girls' relationship develops, the plot becomes more involved in Liza's role as student council president and her school's struggle with a fund-raising campaign. Liza and Annie begin to accept the true direction of their friendship, and of course, as other people become aware, controversy surfaces. Will the admission of their gay lifestyle cause acceptance or abandonment by family and friends? Could their situation adversely affect a similar relationship between two teachers in Liza's private school?
ANNIE ON MY MIND delves into the acceptance of homosexuality. It seems there will always be two sides to this controversy, but the re-release of the book may ask readers to decide if things are changing as time passes. What really matters in love - what is "right" for those involved or what is perceived as "right" by those whose views may differ?
Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
Summary of Annie on My MindThis groundbreaking book, first published in 1982, is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings. Of the author and the book, the Margaret A. Edwards Award committee said, "Nancy Garden has the distinction of being the first author for young adults to create a lesbian love story with a positive ending. Using a fluid, readable style, Garden opens a window through which readers can find courage to be true to themselves." The 25th Anniversary Edition features a full-length interview with the author by Kathleen T. Horning, Director of the Cooperative Children's Book Center. Ms. Garden answers such revealing questions as how she knew she was gay, why she wrote the book, censorship, and the book's impact on readers - then and now.
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