Linda Soules Releases 'So You Want To Be A Surgeon,' a 38-Page Career Guide for Readers Ages 10 to 14

Author Linda Soules has released So You Want To Be A Surgeon: A Kids' Guide to Surgery, Human Anatomy, Operating Rooms, and the Steady-Handed Doctors Who Save Lives One Procedure at a Time, a 38-page illustrated nonfiction book for readers ages 10 to 14. The title is available now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766228 and carries the ISBN 978-1-972766-22-4. It joins the author's So You Want To Be A... series of career-exploration books. The book walks young readers through what surgeons do each day, how they train, who works beside them in the operating room, and which specialties exist. It has already collected several honors, including a Mom's Choice Award Gold and a win at the 2026 NYC Big Book Awards in the Educational Series (Career) category.

Children's career books often present medicine through a narrow set of images: a white coat, a stethoscope, a dramatic rescue. Surgery is a harder subject to portray accurately, because the work depends on years of anatomy study, thousands of hours of procedural practice and coordination among many professionals. Young readers who show an early interest in medicine usually meet the topic through television dramas or brief classroom units, neither of which explains how a person actually becomes a surgeon. The gap is wider for middle-grade readers, who are old enough to handle detailed explanations but are frequently given material written for younger children. Soules built So You Want To Be A Surgeon for that group. The book treats its audience as capable of understanding the real science and the real demands of the profession.

The book opens inside the operating room and then moves backward through the training path. Readers follow the route from a first anatomy class through medical school and residency to the day a surgeon leads a procedure as the doctor in charge. Along the way, the text explains the three-dimensional understanding of the human body that surgeons spend years developing. It describes how procedural techniques are built through repetition until the movements become reliable and automatic. It also addresses the split-second decisions surgeons make when something unexpected happens during an operation. Illustrations accompany the text to help readers visualize what a surgeon sees, rather than leaving the anatomy abstract.

A second thread covers the people in the room. The book introduces anesthesiologists, scrub nurses, surgical technologists and residents, and explains how each role fits into a precisely coordinated team so that the surgeon can perform the critical step at the right moment. It then surveys the range of surgical careers, including pediatric surgery, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery and robotic-assisted procedures. Each specialty is presented with its own demands and rewards. The book also addresses what the work requires beyond technical skill: the physical endurance of standing for hours, the mental discipline of sustained focus, and the compassion that accompanies responsibility for another person's life. A closing section points readers toward steps they can take now to find out whether medicine might suit them.

The book's central distinction from other children's career titles is its refusal to simplify the facts. Where many introductions to a profession reduce it to a few pleasant tasks, this one describes the length of the training, the discipline involved and the teamwork behind every procedure. The language is pitched at readers who can follow a detailed explanation of anatomy and technique. The format is also deliberate: at 38 pages, it is short enough for a reader to finish in a sitting while still covering training, teams, specialties and personal qualities. It sits within a larger series built on the same premise, that young people are more curious and more capable than publishing often assumes, and that a career book should show a job's difficulties alongside its appeal.

"Kids ask real questions about surgery, and they can handle real answers. This book shows the training, the team and the discipline behind the work," said Linda Soules, author of the So You Want To Be A... series.

The book is aimed first at readers ages 10 to 14 who are curious about medicine, anatomy or the way a hospital works. Students considering a career in healthcare can use it to see how long the path is and what each stage involves, from early coursework through residency. Parents, grandparents and teachers looking for a gift or classroom resource will find a title that connects science content to a specific profession. Librarians and educators building career-exploration shelves can pair it with other titles in the series to give students a comparative view of different fields. Because the book names the supporting roles in an operating room, it also introduces readers to careers such as surgical technologist and anesthesiologist, which young people rarely hear about.

The title has drawn recognition from several award programs. According to the book's listing, it is a recipient of the Mom's Choice Award Gold, a winner in the Educational Series (Career) category at the 2026 NYC Big Book Awards, a finalist in the Nonfiction category of the 2026 Literary Global Children's Book Awards, and a winner of the Literary Titan Gold Book Award. The listing also notes that the So You Want To Be A... series has been honored, including a Grand Prize at the 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards and a Silver Award in Children's Nonfiction at the 2026 CIPA EVVY Book Awards.

So You Want To Be A Surgeon is available through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766228. Readers can check the listing for current pricing and available formats. The book is catalogued as children's nonfiction, runs 38 pages and carries the ISBN 978-1-972766-22-4, which booksellers, librarians and educators can use to locate or request the title. Review inquiries and interview requests with the author can be directed through the listing page. Teachers and librarians interested in the broader series can find other titles through the same author page, where books on a range of professions are collected alongside this release.

The release is part of a series that the author envisions spanning more than 180 titles in total. More than 60 have been published so far, with new books arriving on a steady cadence. The existing list covers careers as varied as astronaut, marine biologist, magician, stunt performer and roller coaster designer, which reflects the author's stated goal of showing young readers that the world is wider and more reachable than they may expect. Each volume follows the same approach: pull back the curtain on a real career, describe its joys and its challenges, outline the path to get there, and avoid talking down to the reader. The surgeon title adds a medical profession with one of the longest training pipelines to that growing shelf.

About Linda Soules and the So You Want To Be A... series: Linda Soules is the author and creator of the series, a collection of career-exploration books for readers ages 10 to 14 and older. The series is envisioned to span more than 180 titles, with over 60 published to date. Her approach is to respect young readers' intelligence and curiosity, presenting each career honestly, including its demands and the route to entering it. So You Want To Be A Surgeon is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766228.