The River of Caregiving
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House
Illustrated by Sarah Gonzales
ISBN: 9780593533604
Critical Praise
★“… Chung’s deceptively simple narrative brims with a joyful warmth heightened by Gonzales’s cozy artwork, textured with waves of blended colors and shapes. Chinese and Taiwanese terms are naturally integrated within the text. The recurring allusion to rivers is an inspired—and beautiful—choice, honoring the love that familial structures provide. A rare and wonderfully rendered tribute to caregiving throughout the generations.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
★ “In a reverent intergenerational narrative, Chung and Gonzales highlight reciprocal acts that functionally support an extended family, which cues as of Taiwanese descent. Via limpid lines, an unnamed child protagonist compares their family’s ongoing efforts to a flowing river: “The way we care for one/ another never stops./ It connects each generation/ to the next/ and back again.” Examples include now-grown children bathing and feeding adults who once did the same for them, and the narrator’s mutual relationship with A-gong: “He picks me up from school... I go with him to his doctors’ appointments,” each with “a snack and a smile.” A water motif weaves throughout digitally finished watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations, its gently scalloped curves framing softly rendered familial interactions, and a stirring closing sequence highlights connections that endure across life and death, proximity, and age.”
— Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review
Honors & Awards
Tenderccare Podcast
w/ Chris Punsalan
What does care look like when nobody has the words for it? That's what this episode is about, through a new children's book called The River of Caregiving. We sat down with author Jocelyn Chung and illustrator Sarah Gonzales to talk about the book and the caregiving stories behind it. Jocelyn wrote it while caring for both of her grandparents through cancer diagnoses, and we get into how that turned into a story built around water, memory, and family. Sarah shares how she illustrated the book without ever talking to Jocelyn during the process, working straight from Jocelyn's own family photos. We talk about growing up in four generation households, staying close to family as adults, keeping language and culture alive across generations, and how the book deals with loss in a way that's honest but still right for a kid.