Author and graphic designer Jocelyn Chung grew up in a family with four generations and a natural flow of caregiving for the elderly and children. In this story for readers ages three to seven, she celebrates that caregiving by comparing it to a river that never stops and "connects each generation to the next and back again."

She offers many gentle, loving examples. Her mother helps her grandmother shower, just as her grandmother bathed her mother as a little girl, for instance; and she holds her grandfather's hand at his doctor's appointments and translates what the doctor says. She describes the depth and breadth of the care: calls to check in on others far away and care packages sent so that for a moment "the distance between us feels smaller." This river of care continues even after death: The fruit trees her grandfather planted continue to provide for their family and remind them of his care.

Lively and uplifting illustrations by Sarah Gonzales use watercolor, gouache, and colored pencils with digital finishing to convey this flow of love from generation to generation. In one picture, a Great Aunt's knitting hands show prominently in the foreground while in the background a long strand of blue wool meanders like a river among children playing in the clothes she's made for them.

The book's river imagery points not only to caregiving's intergenerational flow, but also to its many forms and moods:

Like a river,
the way we care can change as it passes each bend in life.
Sometimes it's fierce and carves out new paths.
Sometimes it's gentle and steady.
Sometimes it's roaring and rumbling.
And sometimes it barely makes a sound.

Chung points out in her author's note that "intergenerational caretaking is one of the lesser-represented experiences in children's books, although it is an ever-present and increasing reality in rapidly aging societies around the world." We applaud this book's thoughtful redress of that imbalance.