Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

 Garden, N. (1992). Annie on my mind. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

Liza Winthrop is student body president for her private school, Foster Academy. She has met a new friend, Annie Kenyon, at the Metropolitan Museum  and their friendship seems to grow fast despite their many differences. Since Foster Academy is very strict, Liza has been expelled because she witnessed an ear-piercing incident and didn't come forward, very bad for the student body president, so she has nothing left to do except wait to hear her fate when she returns. It is through Liza's experiences that Annie finally comes forward and explains how she is gay and has feelings for Liza; she doesn't want Liza to feel pressure, but hopes the feelings are mutual. When she finds out that they are, the girls try to explore their new relationship to the fullest, and eventually get caught by a teacher and one of the students while they are taking care of two of Liza's teachers pets. Since they were caught, the school claims that they were influenced by the relationship held by the two teachers in question. In the end, unfortunately, the teachers are let go and Liza and Annie split ways. Through this process Liza figures out that she truly loves Annie, and would love nothing more to have her back. They find each other again and seek a way to make it work. 

Annie on My Mind is a very interesting book; what amazed me was that since it came out in 1992, it was very rewarding to see that since then authors have been trying to bring about different human experiences to light. The themes that it discussed can be hard to share with a class sometimes, because of different beliefs by both parents and students, but in the end it is important to share these stories in order to bring about tolerance and understanding to different groups. I believe a good age range to include this novel in would be 9th graders and above because of the themes. 

I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars!