Many Things at Once

“My parents tell me I’m lucky to be both Indian and American, to be both Jewish and Hindu, to be part of many things at once,” says the thoughtful young narrator of this picture book from Hiranandani (The Greatest). After the child’s Jewish American mother and Indian American father fall in love and have the protagonist, they tell stories of escape and hard-won success that inform both sides of the child’s family tree. But after a scene of an exuberant extended family gathering, portrayed in busily peopled pencil and digital sketches by Alam (The House Without Lights), the story turns contemplative. The narrator describes not knowing “all the words to the Hebrew songs” that some cousins sing or the Hindi that others have learned. Parental guidance (“It’s okay to feel many things”); the presence of butterflies, no two alike; and the deep-rooted flowers from which the insects drink prompt a visualization of “all the journeys I’m connected to and grow from” in this book about defining oneself in more than one way. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. Illustrator’s agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. (Jan.)