Snapshots deals with some of the seamier sides of life in the twentieth century. Child pornography and child molestation are unpleasant but important topics. Still, Klein does not go into graphic detail about these topics. When the photographs come under investigation, Sean feels forced to explore whether he felt any sexual attraction to Tiffany when Marc and he took the photographs (he decides that he did not), and he becomes frightened about his growing sexual feelings: Might they get him into any kind of trouble, he wonders. In the last analysis, he discovers that his feelings are absolutely normal.

Some readers may find the Abrahms's feelings about religion controversial. They are secular Jews wholly uninterested in the religious aspects of Judaism. In his bar mitzvah speech Sean says that it is important for him "To always remember that I am part of an ancient tradition, which...