Book Review: Annie On My Mind

Annie On My Mind

by Nancy Garden

Summary

Eliza Winthrop, Liza by choice, except her brother who calls her Lize is a freshmen at a private school, Foster Academy. Foster (FA) is known for being a very religious school with firm beliefs instilled by Mrs. Poindexter, the the principal. Liza is Mrs. Poindexter's right hand woman, serving as the president of student council, and not by choice. Liza is a petite girl, standing at five feet three inches, and is quiet, but not to the full point of being labeled as shy. She is well liked and tends to keep to herself. Liza's best friend, Sally, is the more outgoing one, leaving the two as a perfect pair.

Liza, at seventeen years old, already knows she wants to go to MIT to study architecture. Her grades are high, she participates in extracurriculars, and she has the backing of the principal and student body. She also has a secret.

Liza loves to visit museums in her free time. Visiting the museums is easy for her because she lies in New York City, leaving an ample amount of choices. One November, Liza wandered into a room in the museum and came upon a girl her age singing underneath a painting. Liza is immediately intrigued by the beautiful voice, and even more beautiful girl, that she approaches her, soon apologetic for interrupting. The two introduce themselves and decide to wander the museum together. Annie Kenyon, a seventeen year old girl with long black hair moved to New York from California. Annie is energetic, outgoing, loud, and the complete opposite of Liza, but somehow they are like two peas in a pod. Annie lives with her mother and grandmother, an old Italian woman who knows little English. Her grandfather is a taxi driver, also from Italy, and both of them immediately cling to Liza. It takes a while for Annie to introduce Liza to her family because she is not as well off as Liza, leaving Annie embarrassed and self conscious. Liza doesn't even realize it until Annie makes a comment, where she then notices her somewhat ragged and ill fitting clothes.

The book begins with a letter from Liza to Annie.You can infer that Liza has not spoken with Annie in quite a while due to some traumatic incident. Liza flashbacks to how she met and interacted with Annie over the next year.

After the initial meeting at the museum, Annie and Liza being to hang out more and more. They enjoy pretending to be imaginary characters and talk in different time frames, knights being their go to. At first, it was awkward, but soon they became the best of friends, slowly with Liza drifting apart from Sally.

Liza and Annie's ability to hang out when they wanted was not always easy. Annie lives on the other side of town and goes to an unaccepting of outsiders school. When Liza tried to visit on a day off, she was not let in. They chose to spend their time walking around NY, visiting museums, walking the town, and sharing stories of their past. Annie hints that she had a very close female friend in California, Beverly, and soon mentions that one night, at a sleepover, they kissed.

it wasn't until the day before Thanksgiving that Liza met Annie's family. Her grandma loved her and her mom showed just as much affection. Annie's room was small but full of plants. Although interested in music, she had a passion and green thumb. Annie sang in school, and Liza and her family attended many of her concerts, astonished by her voice.

After Liza was suspended, for the first time, for not turning Sally in for a silly ear piercing stunt, Annie and Liza meet at Coney Island, riding the ferry back and forth before being kicked off. This was the night they shared their first kiss. There was an awkward break, a few harsh words exchanged, and finally Liza told Annie she loved her. Annie told her that she knew she was gay, has known for a while, but is not making Liza choose what she wants to identify as. Liza is still unsure about her sexuality, all she knows is she loves Annie, gay or not.

At Christmas time, the girls exchange gifts. Both girls gave each other gold rings, Annie receiving a pale blue stone and Liza receiving a green stone. At that point, they knew they were perfect for each other and it was meant to be.

Unfortunately, they began to bicker and fight more and more as time went on. By March, things were looking pretty bleak relationship wise. When both girls received their acceptance letters to college, they celebrated at the botanical gardens. Annie revealed she was going to be a counselor at a music camp from June 24th possibly to the end of December.

Annie and Liza decide to shop for gay literature, nervous about being seen in public. The majority of their relationship has consisted of long hugs and hand holding, up to this point. A few kisses have been shared, but none of this was shown much in public.

During spring break, a two week period, Ms. Stevenson and Ms Wilder, two teachers at FA, agreed to have Liza watch their cats at the house while on vacation. This was the first time that Liza and Annie would be able to spend alone time together because they never had the chance at either of their houses. Liza's mom, a kind and understanding woman, always liked Annie and was happy that Liza was happy. Her father, George, was a stern engineer who expected Liza to be as intelligent as he is. Her brother, Chad, adored the two year older Annie. The family never expected Liza to invite Annie over to the house she was babysitting for. Up until that point, the girls barely even had sleepovers, so no one had the thought of their relationship.

The girls spent day after day together, never overstepping and going upstairs to the bedroom. One day, after looking for one of the lost cats, they wanted upstairs and come to the realization that the two teachers are gay. Gay literature litters the bookshelves, and Annie and Liza thumb through it. Annie tells Liza that they don't need to hide behind closed doors, and how, if the teachers that taught at a religious school could do it, then so could they.

On the last night of house sitting, the girls decide to take their relationship to the next level in the downstairs bedroom. A loud knock is heard at the door, Liza answering it in a half buttoned shirt. Ms. Baxter, another teacher at FA, and Sally are at the door, worried beyond belief. Ms. Baxter is a neighbor of theirs, and she knew they were out of town, so she worried when she showed up to Liza's house to speak with her. Liza was supposed to be helping Sally on fundraising campaigns for the slowly departing FA. Sally and Ms. Baxter went to Liza's house to speak with her and they were directed, by Chad, to the house she was babysitting.

Ms. Baxter bursts into the house, uninvited, and beings to search the house in a panic. She runs upstairs and finds Annie in just a coat, and speculates they are having relations. This throws Ms. Baxter over the edge and leaves Sally hating Liza.

A trial, held by the Board of Trustees, occurs at the school. A panel of trustees, Mrs. Poindexter, and Liza's parents with her are all in the room. Ms. Baxter jumps to conclusions and tries to pose more of her opinion and feelings rather than the story. After a long and heated debate, a red haired woman stands, raging at Mrs. Poindexter and Ms. Baxter about how this case has nothing to do with the school or fundraising campaign. The entire time this was going on, Mrs. Poindexter thought that the school would not receive the money knowing that there was a gay student as student council president. Liza couldn't thank the red haired woman enough.

Liza was still suspended until they could figure out what to do. There was a few items to be debated: should they tell MIT, should Liza be kicked out of student council presidency, should Liza be kicked out of school, and a few other minor thoughts.

In the end, Liza was let back into school with no issues, still maintaining her position as president. Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Wilder, who Annie and Liza began to visit and speak with frequently, were fired, and Mrs. Poindexter was asked to resign at the end of the year because she was not seen fit as a principal anymore. The gay teachers packed their bags and moved away, leaving Annie and Liza to think it was their fault. They explained how it was not their fault, and that, no matter what, to never believe it was. They told them to be proud of who they were, and, under no circumstances, let others dictate how they feel.

Annie goes to camp, sending letters to Liza almost weekly, with no response whatsoever. Liza has started letters, but never actually sends them. At the end of the book, Liza finally calls Annie, who shows no sign of hurt of the loss of talking, and they decide to meet up during break.

Book Trailer

An easy to understand trailer had both visuals that matched the book as well as the plot line. Garden never personally produced a book trailer for any of her books.

Themes

First Love, Love, Gay, Coming Out, Coming of Age, Sex, Violence, Bullying, Fear, Friendships, and Relationships.

Similar Themed Books

Although I have never read any of them, after quite a bit of research and blurb examples, I came up with the following books with similar themes: Dive by Stacey Donovan, Loonglow by Helen Eisenbach, and Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour.

It really made me realize how many books and genres I have not touched base on yet. This was a wonderful book, beautifully written, and it makes me want to explore more of Garden's collection and other similar novels.

Other Books by Nancy Garden

Sadly, Nancy Garden passed away in 2014, leaving her books as a reminder of her. Nancy has a three book series: Fours Crossing, a five book series: Monster Hunters, and has also written thirty three other books, both young adult and children's books.

Teaching Ideas

This is a difficult book to talk about because it covers some pretty deep ideas that parents may not feel comfortable having teachers discuss in class.

With that being said, first have parental consent on reading the book at all, and then consent from parents on the assignment.

• Have students write an essay on how they compare themselves to Annie and how they compare themselves to Liza.
• Have them compare the differences.
• Ask students how they would have handled the situation in Annie's perspective, Liza's, and their own. Discuss how the answers differ. 
• Question as to who handled the situation best or the most thought out.

Make sure this is a discussion where students feel safe and available to talk about these ideas.