A self-initiated illustrated nonfiction series idea on myths from history. Because you think you know history. But you don’t! Nobody really does.
Because history is full of things that everyone knows, and almost everyone has them completely, spectacularly wrong. This is a book about those things. A young field journal-keeper travels through time, lifting flaps, cracking myths, and discovering that the real story is always more surprising than the one you were told.
Project details
Scope: Self-initiated · Format: Book pitch / editorial spread
Everyone knows: “Nobody could have built the pyramids without a little… alien help.”
Here’s the thing about aliens: we made them up because some couldn’t believe humans were that clever. But they were! Workers at the Giza pyramid site had wages, their own village, a doctor, and we can tell from the bones that they got the fanciest cuts of meat. We even have their graffiti. One crew called themselves “Friends of Khufu.” And when their food rations arrived late? They went on strike, and dropped their tools. The very first recorded strike in all of history. Humans built the pyramids: brilliant, hungry, occasionally angry ones.
Everyone knows: “Vikings were filthy, violent barbarians who wore horned helmets and smashed everything in sight.”
Saturday in Old Norse literally means “washing day.” Viking graves are full of combs, tweezers and ear picks. A very upset English writer once complained that Vikings were stealing local women by being too well-groomed. As for the horned helmets: a man who made costumes for a theatre show invented those in the 1800s. Real Viking helmets were smooth, sensible, and much better for actual fighting. The real Vikings had excellent hair and very unfair reviews.
Looking for a nonfiction illustrator for a history project?