Courtesy Bryan Young.

When Bryan Young returned from a trip to Ford’s Theatre a few years ago, he showed photos of his visit to his eight-year-old daughter Scout. To Young’s delight, Scout was rather interested in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

“She really couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that someone wanted to kill a president,” Young said, speaking today from Salt Lake City, Utah. “I realized that it wasn’t something that, at her age, they were talking about in school. But it was something that she was really excited learning about. The ‘why?’ of that.”

Now Young – a storyteller, writer, director and Editor-in-Chief of “nerd news and reviews” website Big Shiny Robot – has written A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination, a book that covers the four successful assassinations of U.S. Presidents and eight failed attempts in 14 chapters.

At this point, you may be thinking “Really?” But Young says, to him, “it’s really important to excite kids about history.”

“The other thing is that not all the stories are tragic,” Young said, adding that when he read the story of Andrew Jackson’s attempted assassination – by a painter made insane by fumes who believed he was the king of England – he knew “they wouldn’t be all dour and clinical.”

The chapters, which are about five to ten pages long, are accompanied by illustrations by Erin Kubinek, an artist based in Wisconsin who is working with Young on his book Topaz, about a Japanese internment camp near his home.

Young, with the D.C.-based Silence in the Library Publishing, funded the book through Kickstarter. The goal of $3,000 was met in ten days and, with five to go, they’ve raised just over $5,200.

Because the Kickstarter has raised over $5,000, a digital copy featuring Scout’s illustrations will be available. “I can’t keep her away from art supplies,” Young said of this daughter. “She’s ten now and just really loves drawing.”

Young said that this love is one of the things that sparked the idea for the book. After showing Scout photos from his trip to Ford’s Theatre, Young says Scout drew a picture of the derringer that John Wilkes Booth used to kill Lincoln.

“I found hanging on the wall of her bedroom this beautiful illustration of a gun that she’d done. And it was labeled, ‘The Gun That Killed Lincoln,'” he said. “She’s just really fascinated by all of these stories.” Young said Scout will do portraits of all the presidents “in her ten-year-old style,” as well as versions of the assassination attempts.

The book, which will be released digitally by January 2014 and physically by March, is marketed for children between the ages of eight and ten, but Young says he looks at it for for people between the ages of eight and 80.

Lincoln’s assassination, as drawn by Scout Young.