Count Me In

Karina is an introverted, bookish character who often has difficulty communicating how she feels with words. She instead uses photography to access her complex internal world. Throughout the novel, she takes walks to find things that she wants to photograph, using this art form as self-expression and also as a competitive skill she is eager to displace: She “wants her photographs to be selected by an art gallery” (38) for their tween competition and “takes beautiful pictures that she posts on the internet” (39). For example, Karina takes a photo series inspired by the gallery’s competition theme “Home,” and includes images of a night sky, a turtle, and a door. These images represent the way that Karina sees the world, clarifying her particular identity and viewpoint.

Taking pictures also becomes an increasingly powerful healing and community-building tool for Karina over the course of the novel. After she, her grandfather, and Chris are attacked by a violent racist, Karina turns to her photography hobby to process and understand what happened. She photographs the scene where the assault took place, the hospital where her grandfather has surgery, her home, and around the neighborhood. She shares these photos on her social media account and captions them with hashtags that promote peace, tolerance, and understanding.