Linda Soules Releases Kids' Guide to Roller Coaster Engineering, Already Winning 2026 STEM Awards

Author Linda Soules has released So You Want To Be A Roller Coaster Designer (Theme Park Engineer), a 38-page illustrated children's nonfiction guide to the engineering behind theme park thrill rides. The book is available now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766104. Written for readers ages 10 to 14, it explains how a roller coaster moves from concept sketch to opening day. It covers the physics, materials science, computer modeling and safety work that come before any track is laid. The book arrives with several 2026 honors, including a 1st-place STEM win at the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, a Mom's Choice Award Gold, and a Book of the Year designation from Creative Child Magazine. Its full subtitle is A Kids' Guide to Roller Coaster Engineering, Theme Park Design, and the Creative Minds Who Build Epic Thrill Rides.

Most young people meet roller coasters as riders, not as engineered systems. A typical ride lasts about ninety seconds. According to the book, the work behind it can take years: seven, in the example that frames the story. Soules's book is built around that gap between the guest experience and the professional one. Someone has to calculate how fast, how steep, how inverted and how long a ride should be so that it lands between frightening and safe. Nothing about that calculation is accidental.

The book also corrects a common assumption that a coaster is the work of one inventive designer. It describes teams of structural engineers, ride mechanics, safety specialists and experience designers who coordinate closely so that one short ride feels distinct from any other. For students who like to build things, take them apart, and ask why a ride stays on its track, the book presents a career path that mixes technical rigor with creative judgment. It is aimed at the reader who rides once for the thrill and once to work out how it functions.

The science chapters take on the forces that make a ride feel the way it does. Soules explains g-forces, velocity and momentum, along with kinetic energy and what each does to the human body. The book treats the rider's body as a design constraint. Designers have to understand its limits and thresholds as precisely as they understand steel and concrete. That framing lets the book teach physics through a subject children already care about, without reducing the material to trivia.

The process chapters follow the work in sequence. Readers see what a real designer's workflow looks like, from the first concept sketch through computer simulations that run thousands of times before a single bolt is tightened. The book covers the materials engineering behind track and support structures, which must perform reliably through millions of cycles of stress. It presents safety engineering as "the most creative constraint of all," a limit that shapes design choices rather than merely restricting them. It also surveys the history of coasters, from the wooden hill to modern rides, and profiles the legendary designers who shaped that history.

Soules says the book is meant to be candid. It describes what the work costs and what it gives back, and it explains why the people who design roller coasters say they have the best job in the world. The text does not talk down to its audience, and it avoids a simplified version of the career. Unlike many children's books about rides and amusement parks, which focus on the visitor experience, this one is organized around the professional's point of view. It closes with practical suggestions for what young people can do now to find out whether the career might suit them.

"A ninety-second ride takes years of math, physics and teamwork. Kids who ask how coasters work deserve a real answer, not a watered-down one," said Linda Soules, Author, So You Want To Be A… series.

The book's recognition spans several independent programs. Besides the Purple Dragonfly STEM first place, the Mom's Choice Award Gold and the Creative Child Magazine Book of the Year designation, it is listed as a Gold Winner in the 2026 Readers' Choice Book Awards in the Ages 8-12 category and as a winner of the Literary Titan Gold Book Award. Materials for the book also note that the So You Want To Be A… series earned a Grand Prize at the 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards and a Silver Award for Children's Nonfiction at the 2026 CIPA EVVY Book Awards. The press release does not claim additional distinctions beyond those cited in the book's listing.

The book is positioned for several audiences. Students in the 10-to-14 range who are curious about engineering can use it as an early look at structural, mechanical and safety disciplines. Parents and gift-givers get a STEM title tied to a subject children already seek out. Teachers and librarians may find it useful for career-exploration units, where physics concepts such as momentum and kinetic energy can be tied to a concrete example. Its 38-page length suits a single sitting or a short classroom unit. For young readers who like to build or dismantle devices, the closing section offers a way to take the first steps toward the field.

So You Want To Be A Roller Coaster Designer (Theme Park Engineer) is available through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766104. The book is identified by ISBN 978-1-972766-10-1 and is classified as children's nonfiction. Readers can buy it directly from the listing, where the full book description is also posted. Review copies, interview requests and questions about educational use can be directed to the author through the channels associated with the series. Current pricing and format options are shown on the product page and may change, so buyers should confirm details there at the time of purchase.

The roller coaster title is part of a larger publishing effort. The So You Want To Be A… series is intended to run to more than 180 titles in total, with more than 60 published to date and new releases arriving on a steady schedule. Each volume profiles a different career for readers in roughly the same age range. The structure lets young readers compare fields side by side, and it gives families and schools a growing shelf of career-exploration material. The roller coaster volume extends the series into engineering and creative design, where technical discipline and imagination meet in one profession.

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. Each book looks at a specific profession in an honest, specific way. Further information about this title is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766104.