This is a non-fiction history series of picture books. All of the titles in the series start with the phrase, “You wouldn’t want to be . . .” (or something very close to it), and the books explains some of the grosser, grittier facts about life in the past. People in the past faced dangers, had diseases, or were placed in unpleasant situations not often encountered by modern people, and the authors of this series use that to teach children historical lessons. Books in the series feature different eras of history from around the world, and some of them have scientific themes. The series is humorous as well as informative, and the front covers of the book typically have a subtitle that explains why you wouldn’t want to do/be whatever the title says, like “You Wouldn’t Want to Live in a Wild West Town! Dust You’d Rather Not Settle.”

The books in the series are written by different authors. Some of them seem to have been reissued with different titles, although I’m not completely sure because I haven’t been able to get hold of those books to make sure that they’re really the same.

Books in the Series:

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Ninja Warrior! (1999)

A Secret Job That’s Your Destiny. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Viking Explorer! (2000)

Voyages You’d Rather Not Make. By Andrew Langley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy! (2000)

Disgusting Things You’d Rather Not Know. By David Stewart.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aztec Sacrifice! (2000)

Gruesome Things You’d Rather Not Know. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece! (2000)

A Life You’d Rather Not Have. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Roman Gladiator! (2000)

By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Titanic! (2000)

One Voyage You’d Rather Not Make. By David Stewart.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Polar Explorer (2000)

By Jen Green.

You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Railroad (2000)

By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Schoolchild! (2001)

By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Sick in the 16th Century! (2002)

Diseases You’d Rather Not Catch. By Kathryn Senior.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Married to Henry VIII! (2002)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pirate’s Prisoner! (2002)

About the terrible things that 18th century pirates could do to their prisoners. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a 19th-Century Coal Miner in England! (2002)

A Dangerous Job You’d Rather Not Have! By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live in a Wild West Town! (2002)

Dust You’d Rather Not Settle. By Peter Hicks.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an American Pioneer! (2002)

A Wilderness You’d Rather Not Tame. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Great Wall of China! (2002)

Defenses You’d Rather Not Build. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party! (2002)

Wharf Water Tea You’d Rather Not Drink. By Peter Cook.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be in a Medieval Dungeon! (2003)

Prisoners You’d Rather Not Meet. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be on Apollo 13! (2003)

A Mission You’d Rather Not Go On. By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Civil War Soldier! (2003)

A War You’d Rather Not Fight. By Thomas Ratliff.

You Wouldn’t Want to Sail in the Spanish Armada! (2003)

A Invasion You’d Rather Not Launch. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Medieval Knight! (2004)

Armor You’d Rather Not Wear. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus! (2004)

Uncharted Waters You’d Rather Not Cross. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pyramid Builder! (2004)

A Hazardous Job You’d Rather Not Have. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an American Colonist! (2004)

A Settlement You’d Rather Not Start. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Mammoth Hunter! (2004)

Dangerous Beasts You’d Rather Not Encounter. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Greek Athlete! (2004)

Races You’d Rather Not Run. By Michael Ford.

You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on a 19th-Century Whaling Ship! (2004)

Grisly Tasks You’d Rather Not Do. By Peter Cook.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Servant! (2005)

A Thankless Job You’d Rather Not Have. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be in Alexander the Great’s Army! (2005)

Miles You’d Rather Not March. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Mayflower! (2005)

A Trip that Took Entirely Too Long. By Peter Cook.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Crusader! (2005)

A War You’d Rather Not Fight. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Explore with Sir Francis Drake (2005)

A Pirate You’d Rather Not Know. By David Stewart.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Tutankhamen! (2006)

A Mummy Who Really Got Meddled With. By David Stewart.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Roman Soldier! (2006)

Barbarians You’d Rather Not Meet. By David Stewart.

You Wouldn’t Want to Travel with Captain Cook! (2006)

A Voyage You’d Rather Not Make. By Mark Bergin.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an 18th-Century British Convict! (2006)

A Trip to Australia You’d Rather Not Take. By Meredith Costain.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Mayan Soothsayer! (2007)

Fortunes You’d Rather Not Tell. By Rupert Matthews.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Cleopatra! (2007)

An Egyptian Ruler You’d Rather Not Be. By Jim Pipe.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Sumerian Slave! (2007)

A Life of Hard Labor You’d Rather Avoid. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Inca Mummy! (2007)

A One-Way Journey You’d Rather Not Make By Colin Hynson.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Assyrian Soldier! (2007)

An Ancient Army You’d Rather Not Join. By Rupert Matthews.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Mill Worker! (2007)

A Grueling Job You’d Rather Not Have! By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aristocrat in the French Revolution! (2007)

A Horrible Time in Paris You’d Rather Avoid. By Jim Pipe

You Wouldn’t Want to Be on the First Flying Machine!

You Wouldn’t Want to Be on Shackleton’s Polar Expedition!

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Sir Isaac Newton!

You Wouldn’t Want to Be on the Hindenburg! (2008)

A Transatlantic Trip You’d Rather Skip. By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Suffragette! (2008)

A Protest Movement That’s Rougher than You Expected. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live in Pompeii! (2008)

A Volcanic Eruption You’d Rather Avoid. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Worker on the Statue of Liberty! (2008)

A Monument You’d Rather Not Build. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Mary, Queen of Scots! (2008)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live in a Medieval Castle! (2008)

A Home You’d Rather Not Inhabit. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Forbidden City! (2008)

By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the First Submarine! (2008)

An Undersea Expedition You’d Rather Avoid. By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Salem Witch! (2008)

Bizarre Accusations You’d Rather Not Face. By Jim Pipe.

You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on an Irish Famine Ship! (2008)

A Trip Across the Atlantic You’d Rather Not Make. By Jim Pipe.

You Wouldn’t Want to Explore with Marco Polo (2009)

A Really Long Trip You’d Rather Not Take. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Skyscraper Builder (2009)

A Hazardous Job You’d Rather Not Take. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Samurai! (2009)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Meet a Body Snatcher! (2009)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Work on the Brooklyn Bridge! (2009)

An Enormous Project that Seemed Impossible. By Thomas Ratliff.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a World War II Pilot! (2009)

Air Battles That You Might Not Survive. By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Secret Agent During World War II! (2010)

A Perilous Mission Behind Enemy Lines. By John Malam.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Joan of Arc! (2010)

A Mission You Might Want to Miss. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Work on a Medieval Cathedral! (2010)

A Difficult Job That Never Ends. By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor! (2010)

Some Roles You Might Not Want to Play. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Chicago Gangster! (2010)

Some Dangerous Characters You’d Better Avoid. By Rupert Matthews.

You Wouldn’t Want to Climb Mount Everest! (2010)

A Deadly Journey to the Top of the World. By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Nurse During the American Civil War! (2010)

A Job That’s Not for the Squeamish. By Kathryn Senior.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live in the Middle Ages! (2011)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Cursed by King Tut! (2012)

A Mysterious Death You’d Rather Avoid. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Hoover Dam! (2012)

An Explosive Job You’d Rather Not Do. By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Scientist! (2012)

By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an American Builder! (2012)

By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pony Express Rider! (2012)

A Dusty, Thankless Job You’d Rather Not Do. By Thomas Ratliff.

You Wouldn’t Want to Sail the Seas! (2012)

By Peter Cook.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an American Settler! (2012)

By Peter Cook.

You Wouldn’t Want to Meet Typhoid Mary! (2013)

By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Explore with Lewis and Clark! (2013)

An Epic Journey You’d Rather Not Make. By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Books! (2014)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Trenches in World War One! (2014)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Toilets! (2014)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Clean Water! (2014)

By Roger Canavan.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Electricity! (2014)

By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Antibiotics! (2014)

By Anne Rooney.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Cell Phones (2014)

By Jim Pipe.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Extreme Weather! (2015)

By Roger Canavan.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Fire! (2015)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Bacteria! (2015)

By Roger Canavan.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Vaccinations! (2015)

By Anne Rooney.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Insects! (2015)

By Anne Rooney.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Dentists! (2015)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without the Internet! (2015)

By Anne Rooney.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Writing! (2015)

By Roger Canavan.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Soap! (2015)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Money! (2015)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Plastic! (2015)

By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Clocks and Calendars! (2015)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Vegetables! (2016)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Poop! (2016)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Gravity! (2016)

By Anne Rooney.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Math! (2016)

By Anne Rooney.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Sleep! (2016)

By Jim Pipe.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Trees! (2016)

By Jim Pipe.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Great Fire of London! (2016)

By Jim Pipe.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Pain! (2016)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Nurses! (2016)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Dirt! (2016)

By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Glass! (2016)

By Ian Graham.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Bees! (2016)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Boogers! (2016)

By Alex Woolf.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Anglo-Saxon Peasant! (2016)

By Jacqueline Morley.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Guy Fawkes! (2016)

By Fiona MacDonald.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Second World War Evacuee! (2016)

By Simon Smith.