Count Me In

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-14

Chapters 15-24

Chapters 25-31

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Karina’s Photography

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. In these ways, photography offers Karina a way to convey what is on her heart and mind and to ask others for help.

Memorial

The memorial that Karina and Chris’s friends make “across the soccer field” near the sidewalk “where [the attack] happened” (98) symbolizes community. Karina and Chris’s friends draw a “big green heart [...] on the street around the berry stains” with chalk (98). They also hang green hearts from a nearby tree that promote messages of tolerance and kindness. Over the course of weeks following its creation, the memorial grows as neighbors, acquaintances, family members, and friends bring flowers, signs, and photographs to the site.

The memorial also allows the outside world to learn about what happened in Karina’s corner of Houston. In Chapter 22, reporter Anne Maxwell reports that the memorial is “an amazing way to show that this community stands by Mr. Chopra, Karina, and Chris” (119). Then, she and Karina photograph and post about the memorial online, using tags including #GoodPeople, #GoodDay, and #HateHasNoHomeHere.

The memorial remains a fixture in the community. Its lasting presence represents the power of togetherness. Indeed, at the novel’s end, everyone joins together at the memorial to celebrate Shiv’s return from the rehabilitation center—rather than staging this event at the Chopras’ house, Karina decides to locate the party at this new symbol of home and welcome. Karina’s parents marvel at the gathering, knowing that seeing this show of support “will help [Papa] slowly forget the hate he received before” (163).

#CountMeIn

Karina’s #CountMeIn post on social media is symbolic of resilience. Karina first uses the hashtag in Chapter 23 when she posts an image of her grandfather as a young man online—her point is that although he was born in a different country, he has been an American for over 50 years, and the country is as much his as any other American’s. Overnight, the post goes viral, and countless other social media users post similar images with the same tag. When Chris notices how the post is taking off, he feels as if “Karina has pushed a ball down the hill, and there’s no stopping it” (129). Indeed, the hashtag is Karina’s way of communicating her family’s experiences as the descendants of an immigrant: She demands to be recognized as an American and makes it clear that she will defend her American identity against the bigotry of those who malign her. The posts that follow her original post illustrate other Americans’ desire to claim their identities and voices, too. In Chapter 25, Karina sums up the ideas behind the hashtag: In an interview with reporter Anne, Karina says that the tag “means that I cannot be quiet anymore. Count on me to speak up” (137). By thus advocating for herself, Karina gains the strength to publicly live in a way that lives up to her own and her grandfather’s ideals.