Many Things at Once

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Author(s)

Veera Hiranandani

Co-Authors / Illustrators

Nadia Alam

Publisher

Random House Books for Young Reader

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

January 28, 2025

ISBN

978-0593643907

Buy This Book

In this poignant picture book about family and belonging, the child of a Jewish mother and a South Asian father hears stories about her family history. Sometimes she doesn't feel Jewish enough or South Asian enough, but comes to realize you can feel--and be--many things at once.

Based on the author's own family history, here is a moving story about a young girl from two different backgrounds. The girl’s mother tells her stories about her mother, a Jewish seamstress in Brooklyn, New York. She lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment and sewed wedding dresses shimmering in satin and lace.

Her father tells stories of his mother, the girl’s other grandmother, who liked to cook bubbling dal on a coal stove in Pakistan. They tell stories about how both sides came to America, and how, eventually, her parents met on a warm summer evening in Poughkeepsie.

The girl sometimes feels as if she's the “only one like me.” One day, when she spots a butterfly in her yard, she realizes it’s okay to be different—no two butterflies are alike, after all. It’s okay to feel alone sometimes, but also happy and proud. It’s okay to feel-- and be-- many things at once.

Editor review

1 review

Touching and diverse family story

March 06, 2025 (Updated: July 22, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Alam loves the story of her family. Her mother's grandfather came to the US from Poland, and her father's family had to leave Pakistan during the Partition. She thinks it is interesting to be both Jewis and Hindu, but sometimes she struggles. Her cousins might know more of other languages than she does, and she sometimes doesn't feel enough like either of her parents. She has some friends whose family backgrounds have a variety of components, which helps, and her parents are understanding, and tell her it's okay to feel "many things at once".

Good Points

Nadia Alam's illustrations capture what makes each side of the family special. I especially loved the recreated photographs that accompany the family history; it was a missed opportunity to not include a photo of the author's family when she was about six years old, so that young readers could see her when she was about their age.

While there is a lot of philosophy about identity, this story is, at its heart, about loving and honoring relatives who came before us, and being grateful that they were able to escape difficult circumstances and make it to the US to meet people from a wide array of backgrounds. I'm not surprised that Hiranandani's family is from New York; my family roots are all in the Midwest, and I am a much more homogeneous, Western European blend of English and German!

We've come a long way since Maclear's 2010 Spork, which was a more abstract treatment of a multiracial family. Add Many Things at Once to a list to help children understand that they don't have to be just one thing that includes Mawhinney and Poh's Lulu the One and Only, Davol's Black, White, Just Right! Woodson and Blackall's Pecan Pie Baby, and Benjamin's My Two Grandads. Hiranandani's middle grade fiction The Whole Story of Half a Girl and How to Find What You're Not Looking For also draw from her experiences with identity and are great for older readers.