Annie on My Mind

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden was written in 1982. The book is mainly about two characters—Annie and Liza—and their relationship. When the book opens, they’re both seventeen years old and living in New York City. Written for the young adult reader, this romance was unique when it was published because of the central lesbian relationship.

Liza is the protagonist of the story, as well as the narrator. She’s a student at the private school, Foster Academy, and lives in Brooklyn Heights, a wealthy neighborhood. Liza lives with her parents and her younger brother.  In contrast, Annie lives uptown with her parents and grandmother, and they’re not wealthy. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Italy.

Liza and Annie meet at the Met, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. Despite the fact that they come from different socioeconomic situations, they form a bond and become close friends almost right away. At Foster Academy, Liza is not only a star student, but also the student body president. She dreams of being accepted at MIT, where she hopes to study architecture. Annie wants to become a professional singer after studying at the University of California, Berkeley.



Even though they come from different places, and they plan on going away to school on different coasts, Liza and Annie are drawn to one another. Before long, their friendship morphs into a romantic relationship that they can’t deny. They fall in love with one another. Trouble strikes when Foster Academy struggles financially. The school is at risk of having to close its doors. To help the school, one student decides to start piercing students’ ears in the school basement in order to raise money. Liza defends the student and finds herself on the wrong side of the administration. She’s suspended for three days.

Liza’s suspension runs into Thanksgiving break, giving her and Annie plenty of time off of school together. Over the break, they kiss for the first time and Annie tells Liza that she thinks she might be gay. This gives Liza food for thought as, while she’s always thought of herself as marching to the beat of her own drum, she never thought about her sexual orientation in relation to others. It’s not until she falls for Annie that she realizes that she too is a lesbian.

When spring break rolls around, two of Liza’s teachers—females who live together—go on vacation. Liza offers to watch their home and their cats, so she and Annie both stay there together. During spring break, one of the administrators at Liza’s school discovers this and brings it to the attention of Liza’s family. She confesses that she and Annie are in love. The administrator gets a disciplinary committee together at Foster Academy because she wants Liza expelled. However, they decide that not only can she continue to study there, but she can also continue to serve as student body president.



The fallout of this is that the teachers for whom Liza was house and cat sitting are discovered and fired because they’re lesbians. Despite this, they both offer their support to Liza once they learn about her relationship with Annie. Even with that support though, response to Liza and Annie’s relationship puts enough strain on Liza that she breaks things off with Annie.

After graduating from high school, Liza goes to MIT and Annie goes to the University of California, Berkeley. They’re separated by about three thousand miles. While at college, Liza spends some time ruminating on her relationship with Annie. Ultimately, she accepts her sexual orientation and the next time she sees Annie, they get back together.

Annie on My Mind is structured as a frame narrative. The main story is framed by Liza’s internal monologues. Annie has written her many letters, and Liza is trying to work through composing a response. In the frame narrative, Liza is unable to write to Annie, so instead she calls her over the winter break. It’s through that phone call that they decide to give their relationship another try, and the book ends on a high note for both Liza and Annie.



After its 1982 publication, Annie on My Mind was released in subsequent editions in 1988, 1992, 1999, and 2007. The novel has received both praise and criticism. It was placed on the “Best of the Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association. The same association also included it on the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990 to 2000. The novel launched a controversy in 1993 when it was distributed to high school students in Kansas City. This led to a court case in 1995, when the book was deemed educationally suitable. A judge ruled that no school could remove a book from its library if the book was educationally suitable. Four years later, the school decided not to appeal the decision. This controversy led to author Nancy Garden speaking out and ultimately winning the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award in 2000.