Metanarratives--stories that are told and retold over time, so that they become the story--have proven instrumental in cultivating conceptions of the Founders as invariably honest, brave, and ethical. A prime example is the tale of George Washington confessing that he chopped down the cherry tree. While this narrative crafted an image of Washington as inherently moral, even from childhood, it was but a fiction, created by Mason Locke Weems, one of Washington's first biographers. Although the tale was fictitious, this story, nonetheless, powerfully influenced popular conceptions of President Washington for several decades. Accordingly, narrating the lives of the Founders in ways that young people can understand and that take into consideration the tension between historical fact, fiction, and myth can be challenging. Later in this article the authors suggest ways to take on this challenge, but first they dig a little deeper into Washington's portrayal in books for young children and young adults to make clear just how challenging it is to find books that provide readers with a balanced picture of the founding fathers.