So You Want To Be A Roller Coaster Designer (Theme Park Engineer) - Couverture souple

Soules, Linda

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1972766104 ISBN 13 : 9781972766101

Editeur : Linda Colwell, 2026

Synopsis

WINNER — 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Award (1st Place), STEM
RECIPIENT of the Mom's Choice Award® Gold — Honoring Excellence
NAMED 2026 Book of the Year by Creative Child Magazine
WINNER of the Literary Titan Gold Book Award

From the So You Want To Be A… Series — 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, Grand Prize Winner

The ride lasts ninety seconds. The work behind it lasted seven years.

Before the first rider screams, before the first chain pulls the first car to the top of the first hill, someone spent years doing the mathematics of fear — calculating exactly how fast, how steep, how inverted, and how long, so the experience lands in the precise space between terrifying and safe. That calculation is not an accident. It is engineering at its most thrillingly human.

This book takes young readers ages 10-14 inside one of the most imaginative and technically demanding careers on earth — not the theme park guest version, but the real one. The years of physics, materials science, and computer modeling that happen before a single piece of track is laid. The specific discipline of designing for the human body — its limits, its thresholds, its capacity for joy and adrenaline — with the precision of a surgeon and the imagination of a storyteller.

Roller coasters don't just appear. They are built by teams of structural engineers, ride mechanics, safety specialists, and experience designers working in careful coordination so that one ride, lasting ninety seconds, feels like nothing else on earth. Kids who are fascinated by how things work will find the real story here — the physics of g-forces and kinetic energy that make speed feel exactly right, the computer simulations run thousands of times before a single bolt is tightened, and the materials engineering behind track and structure that must perform flawlessly under millions of cycles of stress. This is STEM brought to life in the most fun, visceral way imaginable.

But this is also a book about creative vision — turning a mathematical model into an experience that makes people laugh, scream, and immediately want to ride again. It is honest about what the work costs, what it gives back, and why the people who design roller coasters say they have the best job in the world and mean it completely.

Inside, young readers will discover what a real roller coaster designer's process looks like from concept sketch to opening day. They will explore the science of thrills — g-forces, velocity, momentum, and what they do to the human body. They will learn why safety engineering is the most creative constraint of all, dig into the history of coasters and the legendary designers who turned a wooden hill into one of humanity's great inventions, and find out what young people can do right now to discover if this career might be their calling.

Honest, specific, and genuinely illuminating, this illustrated guide to roller coaster engineering does not talk down to young readers — it brings them all the way in. Because the kid who wants to know what this work is really like deserves a real answer, not a watered-down version.

For the reader who rides the coaster once for the thrill and once to figure out exactly how it works — and feels something shift. For the kid who builds things, takes things apart, and wonders how the wildest rides on earth actually stay on the track.

The greatest roller coaster ever built does not exist yet. Someone has to design it.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

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 8-14. The series covers everything from astronauts and marine biologists to magicians, stunt performers, and roller coaster designers. Her philosophy is straightforward: never talk down to kids. Young readers are smarter, more curious, and more capable than the publishing world often gives them credit for, and they deserve books that respect their intelligence while genuinely sparking their enthusiasm. Each title is written to pull back the curtain on a real career - its joys, its challenges, the path to get there - and to leave readers with the sense that the world is wider, more interesting, and more reachable than they imagined. Before turning to children's publishing, Linda spent twenty-five years in law and finance, advising hedge funds and sophisticated financial institutions on complex regulatory matters - a career that taught her precision, discipline, and how to translate intricate subjects into language anyone can use. She brings that same clarity and care to every book she writes, paired with a deep belief that curiosity is the engine of a meaningful life. Linda lives in Seattle with her husband and two children, where the steady rhythm of family life, the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and the questions her own kids ask every day continue to fuel her work. Additional information can be found on her website at http: //lindasoules.com.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Linda Colwell
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1972766104
• ISBN 13: 9781972766101
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 38
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.fr/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxembourg