A child narrator cannot decide what part of their identity to share on Multicultural Day in this sweet and relatable picture book by Salima Alikhan (Soraya series) and Noor Sofi (Brown Is Beautiful illustrator).
In I Can Be All Three, the teacher announces that Multicultural Day is coming up, and each student will make or bake something special that "tells the story of who you are." Many instantly know what they will share (nesting dolls, a Dala horse), but the young protagonist's hands go still--they aren't sure if they should share something from India or Germany or America. The child tries to make the perfect item that tells the story of who they are, but "nothing feels like quite enough." After the family shares a combination of three desserts--ras malai, strudel, and ice cream--the protagonist finds a way to express the multitudes they contain.
Alikhan seamlessly weaves the child's many cultures into the text through the foods prepared by the family and the bedtime stories each parent tells, but intentionally and successfully focuses on the child, having them figure out how to complete the assignment without help. Sofi's bright, colorful illustrations are animated and full of textural details like crayon scratches and Ben-Day dots. The art complements and supports the text, capturing evocative body positions and facial expressions, such as the protagonist's joy to learn they have two classmates who are "three too." --Hadeal Salamah, blogger, librarian, freelance reviewer