SUMMARY: Annie on My Mind is about two high school seniors who live in New York City, go to different schools, and have very different backgrounds. They meet, fall in love, and try to sort through the complications that their love presents. Most of the problems with their relationship develop as a result of these young lovers being two seventeen-year old girls. Liza and Annie’s relationship is intertwined with a subplot involving Liza’s involvement in a hair-brained fundraiser that happened when she was student council president and the relationship of two of Liza’s female teachers who live together and turn out to be lesbians.
PERSONAL REACTION: Written in 1982, the book was big news because of the homosexual content. I didn’t know what to expect from the book. I’m not homophobic, but I hoped there wouldn’t be a lot of detail about the sexual element of their relationship. There wasn’t. Even so, I can see how the book would have been hugely controversial in 1982 and I imagine it is still banned from many school libraries. Both Liza and Annie are very likeable characters. I empathized with Liza’s struggle to accept her sexual orientation. A lot has changed in nearly 30 years but kids still want to be accepted for who they are and I think that’s really what the book is about.
CLASSROOM EXTENSION: Students will write updates on Liza and Annie twenty years in the future, 2002. What will have happened to them? Will they have achieved their goals? Will they still be together?
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