The You Wouldn’t Want To Be books are such a fun take on history and my kids remember the most random facts when they presented in such a turned-around way. Most of the time we agree that we “wouldn’t want to be” in those situations!
Here is a list of 84 of the books in (roughly) chronological order. I mean, how else are you supposed to find the one that you need?! I found books for our current time period while creating this list!
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What Ages are the You Wouldn’t Want To Be books best for?
Parents should pre-read for content considerations. You know your kids the best, and not every child will resonate with every topic. For example, Aztec Sacrifice or Egyptian Mummy…I have kids who wouldn’t touch those with a 10-foot pole!
This series is recommended for ages 8 to 12.
Right now, I have a 9 and 10 year old who are finally reading short chapter books! For them, this “You Wouldn’t Want” series is the perfect balance of text and cartoon, seriousness and levity. And, I’ll be honest, I see my 14-year old twins picking these up and skimming them, too!
Each book is filled with colorful, cartoonish illustrations and many sidebars. I tend to read the main paragraph aloud and then let the kids look and laugh at the all the comic-like extras.
Most of these are unavailable as new books at a reasonable price, so I check out the ones that the library has available. I think of these as “extras:” fun, additional reads if I can find the book. If I can’t find the book, I don’t worry about it.
It does look like some of the books are being reprinted and those have a different style of cover.
On to the index of books! I’ve tried to make these as chronological as possible! A bunch are also available on archive.org to read for free, so I’ve included those links as well.
Ancient Times
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Mayan Soothsayer!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Inca Mummy!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Mammoth Hunter!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Sumerian Slave!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pyramid Builder!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Tutankhamun!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Cursed by King Tut!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Cleopatra!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Assyrian Soldier!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in Alexander the Great’s Army!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Greek Athlete!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Roman Soldier!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Live in Pompeii!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aztec Sacrifice!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Forbidden City!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Great Wall of China!
Medieval: You Wouldn’t Want To Be books
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Anglo-Saxon Peasant!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Viking Explorer!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Live in a Medieval Castle!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Medieval Knight!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in a Medieval Dungeon!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Samurai!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Joan of Arc!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Crusader!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Work on a Medieval Cathedral!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Explore With Marco Polo!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Ninja Warrior!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pirate’s Prisoner!
Early Modern (1500–1800)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Explore with Sir Francis Drake!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Travel with Captain Cook!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be A Prisoner in the Tower of London!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Married to Henry VIII!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Mary Rose! (Henry VIII’s fleet)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Ill in Tudor Times!
- You Wouldn’t Want to be Mary Queen of Scots!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Sail in the Spanish Armada!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Sick in the 16th Century!
- You Wouldn’t Want to be a Shakespearean Actor!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Guy Fawkes! (Gunpowder Plot, British King James I, 1605)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an American Colonist! (Jamestown, 1607)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Mayflower!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be Sir Isaac Newton! (17th century England)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Great Fire of London!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Salem Witch!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Eighteenth-Century British Convict! (Australia, 1785)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aristocrat in the French Revolution!
19th Century
- You Wouldn’t Want to Explore with Lewis and Clark!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on a 19th-century Whaling Ship! (1819)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Civil War Soldier!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Nurse During the American Civil War!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the First Submarine!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Servant!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Schoolchild!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Mill Worker!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Miner!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on an Irish Famine Ship! (1845)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Railroad! (1860s)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Brooklyn Bridge!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be an American Pioneer!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pony Express Rider!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Live in a Wild West Town!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a 19th-Century Coal Miner in England!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Worker on the Statue of Liberty!
20th Century
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the First Flying Machine! (Wright Brothers, early 20th century)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Titanic! (1907)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Hoover Dam! (1920s)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Chicago Gangster! (1920s)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Suffragette! (also called “You Wouldn’t Want to be a Suffragist!)
- Women’s right to vote is won in 1918 in the United Kingdom and 1920 in the United States, but this book covers the history of women’s rights beginning in the 1840s.
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Skyscraper Builder! (1929 Empire State Building, New York)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be on the Hindenburg! (1936)
- You Wouldn’t Want to be on Shackleton’s Polar Expedition!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Meet Typhoid Mary! (New York, 1869-1938)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Climb Mount Everest! (1953)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be on Apollo 13!
World War I and World War II
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Trenches in World War One!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a World War II Pilot!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be in a Tank in World War Two!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Secret Agent During World War II!
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Second World War Evacuee! (from London)
Posts Related to You Wouldn’t Want To Be books
- Series: American Girl Books in Chronological Order
- Ancient History Booklists
- Medieval History Booklists
- American History Booklists