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By Nancy Garden
Liza's a High School senior who falls in love with Annie. Now Liza's coming out, dealing with parents and school.
Okay, this seemed a perfect book to feature for Banned Book Week. (Check back Tomorrow for more on Banned book week and GLBTQ YA novels...)
"Annie On My Mind" was not only banned - it was burned. Seriously. In 1993 (yeah, only 14 years ago!) Here in the United States of America. In Kansas City. (The Olathe School District, to be specific.) What happened then? As Nancy puts it:
Finally, it was the subject of a First Amendment lawsuit when a group of courageous teens sued to have it returned to school library shelves. After a trial in 1995, a federal district court judge ruled in the book's favor.It's amazing to think that people had to fight to have the right to read this book! And also amazing that it was teens that carried the torch of our rights!
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10 comments:
I absolutely love Annie on My Mind. I read it when I first began thinking of writing for teens, to give myself a sorta crash course in YA history.
I still consider it one of the most emotionally honest love stories.
- Jay
Annie on my mind was a really great book.
-m
I always include this novel on the syllabus of the college-level adolescent literature course I teach since it's the first YA lesbian novel. I continue to be amazed by how this novel is not dated, even 25 years later when so many of my students reading it can't fathom a time when information about homosexuality was not readily available on the internet or in the Queer Studies section of a local chain bookstore, or when there weren't openly gay characters on television. Nevertheless, Liza's (and her teachers) struggles with oppressive school authorities and unsympathetic peers is still sadly current.
I just read Annie on My Mind earlier this week, and it is my new favorite books. I think that Nancy Garden did an exceptional job of capturing the feelings, thoughts, and struggles of young gay people. (I am a young gay person).
--El
I sort of feel bad for saying this, but I am not a huge fan of this book. I know that I'm supposed to respect my big lezzie fiction elders, but I just can't see why this book is so great aside from it being "groundbreaking." The characters are flat, the plot twists are lame (How could you not tell those teachers were together?!), and it was very Lifetime-esque. I guess you're supposed to read it just to say you have, but I really don't see the appeal of it after that.
this is the best book ever written for gay and lesbians, i've read it about three times, and i'm 20, i think if any teen lesbian or gay man read this it will help them like it helped me. best reading
sandra
I really adore this book. such an amazing love story.
I picked up this book when I was still questioning myself. The book was nice. Good story! It focused more on things like school, and having fun, rather than romance. The writing style was dry, however. For the first 50-100 pages or so, I had to force myself to read it. After that, the book drew me in.
lovee this book, read it more then once :D!
-Kylie
I read this book when I was first questioning my sexuality in high school. That was 2006. I'm now a junior in college and I still read this book over again, it is such an amazing part of my coming out story. Garden writes with such truth and captures the feelings of innocent first and daring loves perfectly. I feel like she wrote it for me sometimes.
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