As America turns 250, I’m filled with mixed emotions: pride in our nation’s achievements, anger and sadness at the wrongs committed in the name of patriotism, and fear of what lies ahead. I know many caregivers are feeling the same way. So how do we talk about the semiquincentennial with children?

I’m drawing inspiration from Howard W. Reeves’ picture book, We the People Is All the People (Abrams, April 28). Though the Constitution begins with the phrase “We the People,” it was written at a time when only white landowning men were granted the right to govern. The Founding Fathers, Reeves observes in his author’s note, were keenly aware of this contradiction “but left it for others down the road to sort out.” He takes up that challenge, offering a far more inclusive portrait of America than the one envisioned by the Constitution’s architects. “‘We the people’ is all the people,” he declares. “People next door, / down the street, / and across the country…. // People who build, clean, and repair, / who write, read, and think.” Meanwhile, Duncan Tonatiuh’s striking illustrations capture the American mosaic in all its glory.

The book reminds us that revision is at the heart of our nation’s founding. After all, the Constitution itself refers to “a more perfect Union”—a phrase that recognizes that the country is a work in progress. More revision followed with the Bill of Rights. Perhaps this is the best lesson we can impart to young people: It’s our obligation as Americans to do better—to truly understand our own history, to fight for the rights of the marginalized—even as we celebrate our gains.

Children’s authors are leading the way. Christy Mihaly’s America’s Founding Myths…and What Really Happened, a work of middle-grade nonfiction illustrated by Marta Sevilla (Barefoot Books, May 26), dismantles some of the chestnuts many Americans have long held dear. No, European explorers didn’t discover a vast, uninhabited New World, and yes, people of color played vital roles during the American Revolution. Throughout, Mihaly poses probing questions; readers will emerge ready to ask some of their own: What other truths have been distorted? Who else has been left out of the dominant narrative? And why?

Readers seeking answers can look to Rebecca Traister’s Angry Girls Will Get Us Through (Simon & Schuster, Feb. 17). Adapted by Ruby Shamir from Traister’s works of adult nonfiction, this middle-grade book reframes our understanding of U.S. history, arguing that women’s rage has been crucial to their struggle for equal rights. Abigail Adams wrote with the same ferocity as the Founding Fathers (“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion”); Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat was rooted not in stoic exhaustion, as countless schoolchildren have been taught, but in her anger at systemic racism. The book notes that there’s work still to be done as the Trump administration continues to erode our rights. This potent, clear-eyed book will spur the next generation of activists to learn from the past and confront injustice wherever they see it.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.