On “July 4th, 1976, America was going to have the Biggest Baddest Birthday Party EVER!” writes G. Neri in My Bicentennial Summer: True Adventures From the Most Epic Family Road Trip of All Time (Candlewick, March 3), illustrated by Corban Wilkin. To mark the occasion, the author, then 8, and his family set off to explore the country for themselves. Starting in Neri’s Southern California home, they drove through 26 states over 52 days, culminating in a trip to the nation’s capital. Fifty years later, with Americans observing the country’s semiquincentennial, Neri looks back on what he’s learned—and ponders what lies ahead. The author answered our questions by email.

How did you prepare for this book?

A few years ago, I found some Polaroids I’d taken as a kid. Reconstructing the trip was like being a historian. I had one solid date I could verify (a Glen Campbell concert in Las Vegas, our last stop), and I worked backward from there, drawing on a 1976 map I bought on eBay.

I asked my mom and two brothers, “What do you remember about this place?” I’d talked about the trip before my dad passed, so he’d reminded me of some crazy things, too. The more I laid it all out, the more we recalled. Looking up what was happening at each moment through newspapers, magazines, videos, and our incredible national photo archives created this Venn diagram of memory and fact.

Americans are known for their patriotism but not always for an attentiveness to our history. How can we do better at teaching and learning history?

I find learning through personal stories to be a powerful way into history. Having an 8-year-old kid asking simple yet profound questions when experiencing things for the first time is much more effective than having adult me telling you about the state of our country.

In the book, you reflect on some complicated experiences—seeing Confederate flags in the South, hearing about immigrant roundups—even as you marvel at the beauty of America. How do we balance celebration with sadness and anger?

I meet a lot of young people [who ask], How can we celebrate this country when it seems to be in such dire straits? My answer is: There is actually no better time both to look at the history of this nation and to get out and meet actual people. Our country was born and reborn out of the blood of three wars—the Revolutionary, Civil, and Vietnam wars, in times when everything seemed upside down. But I do believe one of the beautiful things about travel is being exposed to real people in real places. When you’re just talking human to human, it’s great to see that we are, by and large, a curious and accepting people.

How would you like your book to contribute to the conversation of where we are now as a country?

My school district in Florida is the seventh largest in the U.S., and they just bought [copies of my book] for every school in the county and made it their official summer read. They saw it as a meaningful way to dialogue about our 250 years as a nation, the promise of America, and what it means to different people to be an American.

What gives you the most hope for the nation’s future?

For all our country’s flaws, I believe the majority of Americans care about each other. You see it when tragedies happen. You see it between neighbors regardless of the divides that are pounded into our heads through politicians and media. Seeing everyday citizens using our right to protest has been amazing. In the end, it really is about We the People.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.