Everything I Never Told You Lesson Plan

Compare the photo of Lydia at Christmas with the birthday photos. What’s changed?

On Christmas Lydia is given gifts she doesn’t want, heavy with the weight of what her parents dream for her. Nath urges an unsmiling Lydia to smile for the camera, but she refuses. She stares stonily into the camera. The result is a photo that Hannah later feels looks more like the real Lydia. She’s not pretending. As always, Nath is the one she allows to see her, if he’s interested in looking, though Hannah often sees more than anyone else realizes.

On her birthday, Lydia is having a miserable day. But Hannah observes that something seems to have shifted inside her. As on Christmas, her...