A Female "Prince and the Pauper"

Annie on My Mind - Nancy Garden

Garden, N. (1982). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar - Straus - Giroux

            I've always learned a lot more in the real world than I ever did sitting behind a school desk.  For example, one of the most valuable lessons I learned in college came one night when I held one of my best friends in my arms while he wept uncontrollably because he was a homosexual.  He agonized over critics who claimed that gays should be damned because they “choose” this lifestyle.  As he recounted the kind of torment he had gotten all his life from people who ridiculed him, he cried out, “Why would anyone think I would ‘choose’ this kind of abuse?”

            It was that life experience that prompted me to read Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.  The book literally moved me alternately from tears of heartbreak to tears of joy as the author recounted a female Prince and the Pauper – style story of two teenage girls, Liza and Annie, who see their friendship blossom into love.  It’s a sign of the times that there are a growing number of social support groups for teenagers who are realizing they are gay, bisexual, etc.  So Annie on My Mind should be very appealing to them and should be considered required reading for anyone dedicated to "multiculturalism."

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