Linda Soules Releases 'So You Want To Be An Actor,' an Award-Winning Career Guide for Readers Ages 10 to 14

Children's author Linda Soules has released So You Want To Be An Actor: A Kids' Guide to Acting, Auditions, Stage and Screen Performance, and the Talented Performers Who Bring Characters to Life, a 38-page illustrated nonfiction book for readers ages 10 to 14. The title is available now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766236. It describes acting as a working profession rather than a red-carpet fantasy, and it covers the training, auditions and repeated rejection that shape an actor's career. The book has already won a first-place 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Award in Arts/Music, a Mom's Choice Award Gold and a Literary Titan Gold Book Award. It is the latest entry in Soules's So You Want To Be A... career-exploration series.

Career books for young readers often present professions as a highlight reel: the finished film, the opening night, the standing ovation. Acting is a particularly lopsided case. Children see polished performances on screens and stages, but they rarely see the rehearsal rooms, the audition halls or the daily discipline behind them. For a child who has been cast in every school play, or who quietly reads every part in every story, that gap can make the profession look either effortless or out of reach.

Soules wrote the book for that audience. It is aimed at tweens and younger teens who are old enough to ask what a job involves day to day, and who are often given material that either oversimplifies the answer or skips it. The book assumes that readers can handle specifics about physical, vocal and psychological work, and about the fact that rejection is a constant feature of an acting life rather than a rare setback.

The book's central section explains how actors are trained. It describes the voice and movement exercises that turn a body into what the text calls an expressive instrument, and it introduces script analysis, the process of working out what a character is saying beneath the words on the page. It also covers drama techniques that allow a performer to behave truthfully in someone else's circumstances. Each of these is presented as a skill that can be practiced and improved, not a gift some people are born with.

The book then surveys the range of paths open to performers: stage, screen, voice work and physical theater. For each, it outlines what the path demands of the performer. Readers also learn how actors prepare scenes and monologues with discipline and imagination, and how they build the emotional strength to audition again and again. The resilience theme runs through the whole guide. Illustrations support the text throughout, and the 38-page length is designed to suit the target age group while still carrying real detail about the work.

Most acting resources for young people fall into two groups: how-to manuals for children already in classes, and celebrity-oriented books that focus on fame. So You Want To Be An Actor sits between them as career exploration. It is not a workbook, and it does not promise stardom. Instead it asks a question the target reader may not yet have considered: what does this profession actually look like, and is it a fit? The book's description says it "doesn't talk down" and "doesn't oversimplify," and that approach reflects the editorial philosophy of the series it belongs to.

"Kids can tell when a career has been polished into a fairy tale. Acting is craft, discipline and resilience, and ten-to-fourteen-year-olds can handle that," said Linda Soules, author of the So You Want To Be A... series.

The book is written for several kinds of readers. A child who is already active in school or community theater can use it to see what formal training looks like and which paths exist beyond the stage. A child who is curious about acting but has never auditioned can use it as a low-pressure introduction to the vocabulary and expectations of the field. Parents deciding whether to support a child's interest in performing can read it alongside their children to understand the commitment involved. Because it addresses rejection directly, it may also help families talk about what happens when an audition does not lead to a part.

Teachers and librarians may find a place for it in arts and career-exploration collections. Its Purple Dragonfly win came in the Arts/Music category, and its Mom's Choice Award and Literary Titan recognition point to its fit for family and school readers. The book's focus on voice, movement and script analysis also gives drama instructors a shared reference point for discussing technique with younger students, without requiring prior training from the reader.

The recognition extends across the series. The So You Want To Be A... series received the Grand Prize at the 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards and a Silver Award in Children's Nonfiction at the 2026 CIPA EVVY Book Awards. The individual title, So You Want To Be An Actor, won first place in Arts/Music at the 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, the Mom's Choice Award Gold and the Literary Titan Gold Book Award. These are independent awards programs, and the honors reflect judging of the titles rather than sales figures. Taken together, they show that both the series and this volume have drawn notice from reviewers in children's and family publishing.

So You Want To Be An Actor is available through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766236. The book is 38 pages, is classified as children's nonfiction, and carries the ISBN 978-1-972766-23-1. It is written for ages 10 to 14, though the series is designed to appeal to older readers as well. Current pricing, available formats and shipping options are listed on the Amazon product page. Readers who want to explore the wider series can find other titles through the author's listings on the same platform.

The actor volume is one of more than 60 books published so far in the series, which Soules envisions spanning more than 180 titles in total. Releases continue on a steady cadence. Existing subjects range from astronauts and marine biologists to magicians, stunt performers and roller coaster designers. Each book follows the same format: a real career, its joys, its challenges and the path to get there. The long-term plan is to give young readers a broad shelf of professions to browse, including some they may not know exist, so that they can compare options and see how many kinds of work the world offers.

Linda Soules is the author and creator of the series. Before turning to children's publishing, she spent 25 years in law and finance, advising hedge funds and sophisticated financial institutions on legal and regulatory matters. She says that career taught her precision and discipline, and how to translate intricate subjects into language anyone can use. She applies that approach to the series, where her stated rule is never to talk down to kids. Her view is that young readers are smarter, more curious and more capable than the publishing world often credits, and that books should respect their intelligence while sparking enthusiasm.

About So You Want To Be An Actor and the So You Want To Be A... series: The series is a growing collection of career-exploration books for readers ages 10 to 14 and beyond, created by author Linda Soules. More than 60 titles have been published, with a planned total of more than 180. Each book pulls back the curtain on a real profession and leaves readers with the sense that the world is wider and more reachable than they imagined. So You Want To Be An Actor (ISBN 978-1-972766-23-1) is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766236.