So You Want To Be A…
Publication Date: April 13, 2026
RECIPIENT of a Kirkus Starred Review
RECIPIENT of the Mom’s Choice Award(R) Gold – Honoring Excellence
NAMED 2026 Book of the Year by Creative Child Magazine
WINNER – 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Award (1st Place), STEM
FINALIST – 2026 Literary Global Children’s Book Awards (Educational)
WINNER – 2026 PenCraft Seasonal Book Award, Best Book for Children (Grades 4-6)
From the So You Want To Be A… Series – 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, Grand Prize Winner
What does it really take to become an astronaut – not in a movie, but in the actual universe where rockets shake your bones and silence stretches forever outside the hull?
So You Want To Be An Astronaut is the honest, illustrated guide that curious kids have been waiting for. It takes young readers ages 10 to 14 deep inside the science, the training, and the daily reality of one of the most extraordinary careers a person can pursue. No sugarcoating. No skipping the hard parts. Just the real story of what happens between the dream and the launch.
You will follow the full path: years of preparation before a single mission, from underwater spacewalk simulations to wilderness survival training. You will learn the science of space exploration – orbital mechanics, life-support systems, and what happens to a human body living in microgravity far from Earth. You will discover how a small crew depends on each other across distances no rescue team can cross, and what happens when the mission does not go exactly as planned.
The book is rich with space facts that go far beyond the basics. It explores our solar system and the science careers that make every mission possible – engineers, flight surgeons, mission controllers, and the astronauts themselves. It covers the history of space exploration and the pioneering figures who proved that human beings could survive and work in outer space. And it asks the question young readers care about most: what can I start doing right now?
Every page is designed to pull you in, with colorful images and short, focused sections that make even complex science accessible, and glossaries that break down key terms without slowing the pace. It’s the kind of illustrated companion a child first loves for its photographs at eight, then returns to at twelve or fourteen, discovering new depth every time – rich enough that older readers and adults find surprising layers of history and insight in a voice that never talks down to anyone.
For every young person who looks up at the night sky and feels something stir, this book is the real answer they deserve.
Linda Soules is a children’s author who understands engagement, motivation, differentiation, and, above all, speaking directly to children with researched truths. Her series of 150 titles, beginning with “So You Want To Be A…,” has released a thrilling addition: So You Want To Be An Astronaut.
Soules speaks directly to the reader, posing questions as if she were sitting and having a conversation in real time. But the questions aren’t generic. They are meant for true introspection, blending a narrative style with stunning facts from real people who have worked for NASA. The book highlights the team of experts who are all important to space study, giving a truer sense of who the astronauts are by explaining how they are supported.
When there seems to be a nostalgic notion of narrowing learning to reading, writing, and arithmetic, this text illuminates the complexity of learning through the study of all sorts of disciplines and the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills acquired through human relationships. Not only are all the personal qualities brought to the reader through questioning one’s own desires and experiences, but they are also summarized in a five-point, illustrated list among the resources in the back.
This book, along with the entire series, is geared toward 10-14-year-olds, but the author notes that these books could be used with younger children and enjoyed through adulthood. Note that this author is keenly aware of the responsibility of using AI to assist with the illustrations, and I appreciated her transparency in noting how it assists her. The Illustrations are a beautiful, well-thought-through example of how Linda Soules engages readers across a wide range of ages and abilities.
As a retired teacher and a lifelong lover of public libraries, I haven’t run across this series. I have seen several books for children exploring careers, yet none have enchanted me like this one. It is often thought that an internet search could produce a list of facts for just about anything. Many children probably do this as they begin to imagine their future. But this little book is a powerful, tangible resource that can be revisited over and over and truly become a guide to a future career.
Linda Soules has asked the question “So you want to be a….” over 100 times in her middle-grade books. This newest book in the series contains extensive research and is crafted in a style that will captivate anyone who opens the cover of So You Want To Be An Astronaut.
Linda Soules is the creator of the So You Want To Be A… series, career-exploration books for readers ages 10–14, with 47 titles published and more than 180 planned. A former lawyer who spent 25 years in law and finance, she writes on one principle: never talk down to kids. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children.
