Fall Required Reading #18, I think

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden

Published in 1982, this book is considered groundbreaking. Why? Because it is about two teenaged girls who realize that they're gay. In those days, people weren't as open about homosexuality as they are now, and people certainly weren't as accepting of homosexual people. I didn't have to read this to know it to be true; though I may not have realized it at the time, I witnessed it. I'm not going to go into too much on a personal side, but there are people close to me, whom I love dearly, who are homosexual. As far as I am concerned, it's a natural part of who they are, just as eye or hair color. Because I was exposed to homosexuality at a young age, I do not get all bent out of shape about it like many people in our society. I say this because I can see narrow minded people not wanting to read this, much less put it in their school library.

In many ways, this is a typical high school love story. Really, the only difference is that the people in love are the same sex. Not a big deal. It was really very sweet to read.

The narrator is Liza, a freshman at MIT. She's thinking about Annie, the girl she met a little over a year before when she was at the Met in New York City. Liza and Annie became fast friends, and Liza felt an undeniable attraction-not necessarily sexual-to Annie. It doesn't take long for the girls to discover they have feelings for one another, feelings that go beyond the boundaries of friendship. They kiss, they hold hands, they exchange rings for Christmas. Eventually, they want to explore their relationship further, and when an opportunity presents itself, they pounce on it.

Over spring break, Liza has volunteered to cat sit for two of her teachers. They happen to be women. If you read between the lines, you know before it ever gets to this point of the book that they are lesbians too. Long story short, Liza and Annie are caught by those who don't understand, and the repercussions of their actions cause not only trouble for Liza's teachers, but cause a rift between Annie and Liza. The book is recounting what led to this silence between Annie and Liza.

I loved this book. It was more than a fictional story about two girls who fall in love for me. For me, I felt that I gained some insight to what my loved one may have experienced at the same time, and that is valuable in my world.