Linda Soules Releases 'So You Want To Be A Ballet Dancer,' a Candid Career Guide for Readers Ages 10 to 14

Author Linda Soules has released So You Want To Be A Ballet Dancer, a 38-page illustrated nonfiction guide that explains the training, physical demands and artistry behind a professional ballet career to readers ages 10 to 14. The book is listed at https://www.amazon.com/dp/197276635X under ISBN 978-1-972766-35-4. Its full subtitle is A Kids' Guide to Ballet, Dance Technique, Stage Performance, and the Graceful Artists Who Train Their Bodies to Tell Stories Through Movement. The title has won the Literary Titan Gold Book Award, the Grand Prize in the 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, and a Silver Award in Children's Nonfiction at the 2026 CIPA EVVY Book Awards. It is part of Soules's So You Want To Be A... career-exploration series.

Children's books about dance often show the performance and skip the preparation. Young readers see the costumes, the lifts and the final bow, but rarely the years of daily conditioning that make them possible. That gap matters for the many children who take ballet classes, and for the parents and teachers deciding how seriously to support a child's interest in the art form. Ballet is also one of the performing arts in which a career starts earliest, and few professions ask as much of the body over so many years. A child considering that path is making a decision with real physical and emotional consequences.

Soules's book is written for that reader. It treats ballet as a profession, with specific working conditions, a long training pipeline and a large supporting cast. The audience she has in mind includes children just starting classes, those already dreaming of the stage, and curious readers who simply want to know what ballet dancers do all day. The book does not assume prior knowledge of ballet terminology. It defines its terms as it goes and ties each one to what the dancer's body is actually doing.

The first half of the book starts at the barre and focuses on how rigorous training changes the body over time. Readers learn how correct alignment becomes a dancer's natural resting state, how strength is built in muscles that never show, and how flexibility is developed in joints that must never fail. The book explains why dancing on pointe requires far more than balance and why turnout depends on anatomy as much as ambition. It also addresses the physical toll and constant conditioning that shape a dancer's career, which begins earlier and demands more of the body than almost any other performing art.

The second half turns to artistry and the people around the dancer. Soules describes musicality as the ability to hear not just notes but the architecture of a score. She also covers the psychological resilience needed to perform with full presence in front of a full house, when every hour spent in the studio comes down to a single moment. Readers meet the team behind each performance, including choreographers, directors, physical therapists and fellow dancers, whose coordination turns individual movement into a single expression of music and narrative. A historical thread runs from the royal courts of seventeenth-century France to the artists who reshaped ballet into one of the world's most demanding art forms.

The book's main distinction is its candor. Most dance titles for young readers present a highlight reel, while this one stays with the daily work and the costs of the discipline. It gives equal weight to technique and to artistry, which lets readers see why a technically correct dancer is not automatically a compelling one. It names the support professionals, such as physical therapists, whom children rarely encounter in dance stories. It also connects classroom traditions to centuries of innovation, rebellion and reinvention, so young dancers can see the steps they practice as part of a living history. Soules writes for an audience she believes is capable of handling real information.

"Kids who love ballet deserve the real picture: the training, the toll on the body, the teamwork, and the artistry. I wrote this book without talking down to them," said Linda Soules, author.

The book is aimed at several groups. A student in her first year of classes can use it to understand why teachers stress alignment and repetition. An older student weighing a serious commitment to ballet can use it to see what a long-term career involves, including the role of conditioning and injury care. Boys and girls are both addressed directly, and the book speaks to children who watch from the wings and wonder what it would take to stand in the light. Parents and dance teachers can use it as a shared reference for conversations about commitment, health and expectations. Librarians and educators building career-exploration shelves for middle-grade readers will find a performing-arts title that treats the subject as a profession.

So You Want To Be A Ballet Dancer is available through the Amazon listing at https://www.amazon.com/dp/197276635X. The book runs 38 pages, is categorized as children's nonfiction, and carries ISBN 978-1-972766-35-4. Readers should consult the listing for current formats, pricing and availability, which can change. Because the listing carries the ISBN, libraries, schools and booksellers can use it to locate the title through their usual ordering channels. Soules has not announced additional editions or bundles tied to this release, and the listing remains the primary source for purchasing details.

The ballet title belongs to a series that Soules envisions spanning more than 180 books in total. More than 60 have been published so far, with new releases arriving on a steady cadence. The series covers a wide range of careers, from astronauts and marine biologists to magicians, stunt performers and roller coaster designers. Each book follows the same approach: pull back the curtain on a real career and describe its joys, its challenges and the path to get there. The awards attached to the ballet volume come as the series continues to grow, and Soules plans to keep adding titles for readers ages 10 to 14 and beyond.

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 older. Before turning to children's publishing, she spent 25 years in law and finance, advising hedge funds and sophisticated financial institutions. Her stated philosophy is that young readers are smarter, more curious and more capable than the publishing world often assumes, and that they deserve books that respect their intelligence while sparking real enthusiasm. More information about So You Want To Be A Ballet Dancer is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/197276635X.