Linda Soules Releases Kids' Career Guide 'So You Want To Be A Waterslide Tester'

Author Linda Soules has released So You Want To Be A Waterslide Tester: A Kids' Guide to Waterslide Testing, Theme Park Safety, Ride Design, and the Lucky Professionals Whose Job Is to Splash, Slide, and Make Sure Every Ride Is Perfect, a 38-page children's nonfiction book for readers ages 10 to 14. The book is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766333 (ISBN 978-1-972766-33-0). It explains a job most children assume is pure play: riding a waterslide repeatedly before it opens, to measure speed, water flow, G-forces, surface friction and landing impact. The book presents that work as engineering and builds its argument around one idea: safety and joy are the same thing, not opposites. It is the latest title in Soules's So You Want To Be A... career-exploration series.

Career books for middle-grade readers tend to cluster around a familiar list: doctor, teacher, firefighter, astronaut. Jobs that sit behind the scenes of everyday experiences get far less attention, even though they involve the kind of applied science that schools try to make relevant. Waterslide testing is a useful example. A designer working from drawings cannot fully predict how a rider's body will move through a curve, where a water layer will thin out, or how a landing zone will feel at the end of a drop. Someone has to ride the slide and find out. Soules uses that gap between design and reality to introduce children to physics, safety certification and the quiet, unrecognized labor that makes public attractions work.

The book walks readers through what a tester actually checks on every ride. Speed, water flow, G-forces, surface friction and landing impact are each covered as a measurable part of the job. One section explains why the thin sheet of water running down a slide surface matters so much: according to the book, it is the single thing standing between a thrilling ride and a second-degree friction burn. Readers also learn why testers cannot ride politely. They have to ride the way children really ride, which means sideways, arms crossed, holding hands in tubes and trying whatever a ten-year-old would try on opening day. The approach connects abstract physics to behavior kids already recognize.

Structure and format reinforce the content. A timestamped day-in-the-life log follows a tester from an 8:30 AM briefing at a still-empty water park, through certification runs, to a final safety report at 4:30 PM. Readers meet Tommy Lynch, who spent four years and 108,000 miles testing slides at twenty resort properties across Europe, Egypt, the Caribbean and elsewhere. A glossary defines profession-specific terms including banking angle, centripetal force, hydroplaning, flow rate and transition, which gives young readers working STEM vocabulary. Hands-on activities let them explore the concepts at home, including a backyard slip-and-slide experiment, a water-flow demonstration and observation exercises to try at a real water park.

The book is written in direct second-person address. Soules speaks to the reader not as a student but as a future colleague being briefed for a first day on the job. That voice reflects the stated philosophy behind her series: never talk down to kids, and give young readers material that respects their intelligence while sparking real enthusiasm. The book also commits to a thesis rather than a list of cool facts. A truly safe waterslide, it argues, is one a rider can enter with complete physical abandon, and that freedom exists because someone did careful, invisible work in advance. For a children's title, that framing links fun, responsibility and professional pride.

"Safety and joy are not opposites. A slide is only safe enough to throw yourself into if someone did careful, invisible work before you arrived," said Linda Soules, author.

The book is aimed at readers ages 10 to 14, though the description notes that its insights and surprises should hold attention beyond that range. Likely readers include children who notice details other people walk past, those curious about how amusement and water-park attractions are made, and those who like science best when it is tied to a concrete job. Parents, teachers and librarians can use it to start conversations about careers built on careful, quiet work. Classroom and library uses include STEM vocabulary lessons built on the glossary, at-home experiments drawn from the activities section, and career-exploration units that look beyond the best-known professions.

The title has already collected recognition. It won the Literary Titan Gold Book Award, the Grand Prize in the 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, and a Silver Award in the Children's Nonfiction category of the 2026 CIPA EVVY Book Awards. The book is described as part of the award-winning So You Want To Be A... series. Those honors give librarians, educators and parents an outside signal of quality when choosing among the many children's nonfiction titles available, though the book's appeal rests on its subject and approach: a real job, explained with real science, for readers who are ready for it.

So You Want To Be A Waterslide Tester is available through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766333. The book runs 38 pages, is categorized as children's nonfiction, and carries ISBN 978-1-972766-33-0. Current pricing, available formats and shipping details are listed on the product page. Parents, teachers and librarians who want to preview the book can use the listing to read the full description and see the awards the title has received. No special signup or account beyond a standard Amazon purchase is required to obtain the book.

The release fits into a much larger publishing plan. According to the author's biography, the So You Want To Be A... series is envisioned to span more than 180 titles, with more than 60 published to date and new releases arriving on a steady cadence. Subjects already covered range from astronauts and marine biologists to magicians, stunt performers and roller coaster designers. Waterslide tester joins that list as another job that sits at the intersection of fun and rigor. The series' consistent premise is that children are curious and capable, and that career books can show them paths that do not have to be ordinary.

About Linda Soules and the So You Want To Be A... series: Linda Soules is the author and creator of the So You Want To Be A... series, a growing collection of career-exploration books for readers ages 10 to 14 and beyond. The series is envisioned to span more than 180 titles, with more than 60 published to date, covering professions from astronauts and marine biologists to magicians, stunt performers and roller coaster designers. Her philosophy is that young readers are smarter, more curious and more capable than the publishing world often credits, and that they deserve books that respect their intelligence. So You Want To Be A Waterslide Tester is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766333.