Inspiring Children's Book Brings Story of RBG's Youth to Life: 'Even I Learned Something,' Says Granddaughter

"I am Ruth Bader Ginsburg" author Brad Meltzer and RBG's granddaughter Clara Spera tell PEOPLE about the significance of making history accessible for younger generations

Three years after Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, her legacy lives on in court decisions, biographies, films and the nation's collective memory — but for a budding generation of American children, the Supreme Court justice's life is a perhaps unfamiliar tale of courage and determination now illustrated in an imaginative first-person children's book.

I am Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the 32nd installment in Brad Meltzer's historical children's book series Ordinary People Change the World, which highlights various real-life "heroes" who used their natural talents to do something great. In each book, the featured hero is illustrated as a child throughout their life to help kids see themselves in the titular character.

"I started these books for my own kids to give them better heroes to look up to — heroes of perseverance, kindness and compassion, these things that seem to be lost in the world today," Meltzer, 53, tells PEOPLE.

Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Life in Photos

In celebration of the series' 10th anniversary, he and illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos chose to tell the story of Ginsburg's lifelong crusade for equality, beginning with her childhood observations as a young Jewish girl in Brooklyn.

"We all understand what it's like to have someone try and put us in a little box and make us feel small," Meltzer says. "What I love about Ruth Bader Ginsburg is she's someone who, at a time when it was as hard as it could be, said, 'I'm not letting any of those labels limit me.'"

Related: Bill Clinton Shares Why RBG Stood Out Among 'Dozens of Candidates,' 30 Years After Her Swearing-In (Exclusive)

To tell Ginsburg's story in first-person, Meltzer pored through her court opinions and interviews to incorporate her voice. He also brought in Jane Ginsburg — the late justice's daughter and a personal friend to Meltzer — to share little-known family stories and ensure that the final narrative was true to character.

When RBG's granddaughter Clara Spera first read the book, she was surprised to learn new things about Ginsburg, like how she spent her birthdays as a child handing out ice cream to less fortunate kids in the neighborhood.

"There are books [about my grandmother] out there, there are movies, et cetera, but this one's really special to me because I'm sort of unlocking her as a child," Spera, 33, tells PEOPLE. "I love that she remains a child throughout the whole story, even as everyone around her is an adult. I think it's easy both with people we look up to, but even our own parents and our own grandparents, to forget that they were children once too, who had dreams, who had aspirations, and they were not these fully formed grandparents when they were young."

Spera was 2 years old when Ginsburg — whom she calls "Bubbie" — was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, allowing her to draw inspiration from RBG's life firsthand as she got older and developed her own values and interests. She is now a practicing attorney who focuses on women's rights issues and teaches Reproductive Rights Advocacy at Harvard Law.

"The lesson and legacy that my grandmother left was that we should use the tools at our disposal to do the most good and to address inequality and injustice when we see it," Spera says. "That's what I am striving to do in my career, because as much as she was able to achieve as both an advocate and a justice, there is still so much work that needs to be done both in this country and abroad."

Through I am Ruth Bader Ginsburg, more children can adopt RBG's passion for equality at an early age. "There is a kid out there who's going to read this book and who's going to go, 'I want to be a Supreme Court justice,'" Meltzer says. "More importantly, [they might] say, 'I'm going to use my voice.'"

Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Granddaughter Reflects on 'Shopping in Bubbie's Closet' in Powerful Essay

Meltzer's strategy — to gear his educational books toward children aged 5 to 9 — is one that RBG herself would endorse, Spera says, noting that her grandmother loved hosting school groups at the Supreme Court and felt it was important to engage children with the world and institutions around them at a young age.

"She, just like Brad, knew that children and the youth were really the future path-makers, and that was really important to her," Spera adds. "I have a young son myself who's a year and a half, and I can't wait to read this book to him and hope that he sees himself in his great-grandmother."

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With the release of RBG's mini-biography on Tuesday, she will be among the first historical figures that young kids learn about when they dive into Meltzer's growing children's library. Other heroes include major change-makers whose values informed their achievements, like Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Gandhi and Rosa Parks.

"I have a very hard time changing the minds of adults. That's why I chose to approach children," Meltzer says of his library. "We're building an army of young kids with better ideas of kindness, equality, compassion and humility, and that little army is now 10 years and growing."

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