25 November 2010 EXPOSED by Kimberly Marcus, Random House, February 2011, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-375-86693-7
"Pieces from here and there
fall in place along the line
disappearing between you and me.
The flash of a distant camera
reconnecting thoughts and actions,
fragments of our missing dreams."
-- Neil Young, "Distant Camera"
"Bringing to Light
I slip the photo paper
into the developing solution,
sway it around with black plastic tongs
and wait.
The hum of air from the overhead vent,
the swish of chemicals,
and the sucking in of my breath
are the only sounds shifting
in the dim light of the darkroom.
I'm alone
but not for long.
As white turns to gray,
Kate is with me.
The background of the dance studio blurred
so the focus is all on her--
legs extended in a perfect, soaring split.
The straight line to my squiggle,
my forever-best friend."
Sixteen year-old Elizabeth Grayson is passionate about and practiced at her art, which is her photography. She and her forever-best friend, fellow high school junior Kate, have a trail of happy memories (and the photographs to prove it) going back to when they were little kids.
Liz had first become a photographer thanks to her beloved older brother Mike, two years her senior, who is now a college freshman.
"The Gift
My brother, Mike,
bought me my first camera--
a gift for my twelfth birthday.
He'd seen me eyeing it
in a Hallmark store
at the Cape Cod Mall.
Mike didn't know
I was staring at the camera--
on a shelf beside the scrapbooks
and photo albums--
not because I wanted to take pictures
but because it was lilac,
my favorite color,
and because it had a butterfly on it,
right beside the lens,
made of tiny rhinestones.
He wrapped it himself
with the sports section
of the Boston Sunday Globe
and looked down at his feet
when he handed it to me.
The first photo I ever took,
with my very own camera,
I took of Mike that day--
his mouth open wide,
tongue stuck out,
displaying the remains
of his slice of my cake."
Liz and Kate have forever had monthly sleep-overs together. But at this month's sleep-over they quarrel, Liz retreats to her room, and Kate is gone in the morning when Liz comes downstairs.
Now Kate is not talking to Liz. And when Liz finally corners her life-long friend, Kate tells Liz that after the quarrel and Liz's retreat, Mike came in and raped her. In due course, Kate speaks out, Mike is arrested, and Liz Grayson is left to decide who is telling the truth: her beloved brother:
"Mike's face loses color, our eyes meet,
and he looks and sounds like he's about to cry.
'I told you, Lizzie. I swear I didn't do it!'"
or her beloved friend:
"There's a crazy-scary fire in her eyes.
'I'm not surprised he told you that.
He wants you to take his side.
I bet he didn't tell you about the pillow.'"
And what does it mean that both of them have kept secret from Liz how they'd spent quality late-night time kissing during a previous sleep-over?
Pictures can lie. Whose picture of what happened that night is accurate...and what will be the verdict of the trial?
EXPOSED, by new author Kimberly Marcus, is a stellar YA mystery and coming-of-age tale wrapped up in a verse novel.
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