The Loners

by Nancy Garden

Like himself, Paul thinks Jenny is just another misfit looking for a place in the world, until he realizes that she has little chance of finding it.

143 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 1972

About the author

A versatile writer, Nancy Garden has published books for children as well as for teens, nonfiction as well as fiction. But her novel Annie on My Mind, the story of two high school girls who fall in love with each other, has brought her more attention than she wanted when it was burned in front of the Kansas City School Board building in 1993 and banned from school library shelves in Olathe, Kansas, as well as other school districts. A group of high school students and their parents in Olathe had to sue the school board in federal district court in order to get the book back on the library shelves. Today the book is as controversial as ever, in spite of its being viewed by many as one of the most important books written for teens in the past forty years. In 2003 the American Library Association gave the Margaret A. Edwards Award to Nancy Garden for lifetime achievement.

In Remembrance: Nancy Garden

Reviews

[Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was a little odd for me.

While I enjoyed it enough to finish I felt like I wanted more the whole time. The story felt like it was picking up and getting interesting 10 pages to the end and then just kind of died out. As for the characters, I really wanted to like them but Jenny and Paul seemed so immature even for their age that I had a hard time taking them seriously or really becoming attached.

[Kym · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1972 and remains relevant today. It is a quick read.
The Loners, by Nancy Garden, joins Jen and Paul as blood friends. Jen fights mental illness and uses drugs to try to find her way out of the black hole she has created, thus the references to Alice in Wonderland. She pulls Paul along proclaiming him her Mad Hatter. Paul’s only source of mentoring is his grandfather who becomes ill; Paul is on the fringes with a family that is unable to communicate. Will the two teens survive, or will they fall and tumble into the abyss?

This extremely moving story is set in tumultuous times that includes rapidly changing mores. Jenny and Paul are two kids whose experience travels across decades to help teens understand that growing up is a painful process where doors are opened and closed everyday. It is a story of love, of compassion, and finding one’s place in the world.