A Fort St. Joseph Graphic Novel

Hello again everyone! 

Hollie here with a little archaeology outreach update. I’ve been working on something pretty cool over the past several weeks that I’d love to share with you! For my Lee Honors College thesis, I am writing and illustrating a fiction middle-grade graphic novel set at our very own Fort St. Joseph summer camp. I began this project in an effort to bring the world of archaeology to today’s youth. As a kid, I grew up loving all things rocks, fossils, and paleontology, but it wasn’t until high school that I learned about archeology. Talking to my fellow students at WMU, both in and out of the anthropology major, it is clear that my experience is not unique. While there are countless fiction and nonfiction dinosaur books and history books from various time periods, there is a clear lack of children’s literature that focuses on archaeology. With this novel, I hope to fill a bit of that niche and introduce archeology in a user-friendly and exciting way. 

The story is set in present-day Niles Michigan with our main character, 11-year-old Ellie who is about to enter 6th grade. Below is a brief blurb, or book jacket if you will, of my yet-to-be-titled graphic novel. Feel free to reach out with title ideas! 

Nervously anticipating their transition into middle school, eleven-year-old Ellie spends most of their time playing video games in their room. Worried that their kid is spending too much time inside, Ellie’s parents decide archaeology camp at Fort St. Joseph is just the thing to get them reconnected with the great outdoors and with their peers outside of a computer screen. Though formerly obsessed with all things archaeology-related, Ellie is NOT on board with the idea of spending their precious summer outside surrounded by bugs and strangers. When Ellie finds themself transported into 18th-century French-occupied Fort St. Joseph, they just may change their mind. With adventure and danger at every turn, Ellie and their trusty sidekick Toad will have to use their archeological knowledge to navigate life in the 18th century and find their way back home. Filled to the brim with historically accurate archaeology, new friends, and a touch of time travel, archeology summer camp might be exactly what Ellie needs to navigate middle school.

I look forward to sharing my graphic novel with all of you after I defend my thesis in the spring! 

-Hollie