When paddlers Alan Kesselheim and Marypat Zitzer were starting their family, each of their three kids unintentionally experienced, from the womb, a major river expedition. Later, Eli, Sawyer, and Ruby grew up on other river trips, joining their parents in canoes as infants and toddlers and becoming adept paddlers and campers before they were ten. Recognizing a unique opportunity to celebrate their children's transitions to adulthood, the family returned to those "birth" rivers and repeated each of the three original paddling trips. Over a period of four years, as each child reached the age of thirteen, the family of five shared epic voyages on the water-on the Kazan River in Nunavut, the Yellowstone in Montana, the Seal in Manitoba, and the Rio Grande in Big Bend. A moving testimonial for allowing children to experience nature firsthand, Let Them Paddle is a captivating tale of adventure, challenge, and one family's coming of age.