WINNER ? 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Award (1st Place), Arts/Music
From the So You Want To Be A... Series ? 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, Grand Prize Winner
No one will see your face. No costume, no stage, no spotlight. There is a microphone, a script, and a booth the size of a closet. And from that closet, you will make someone believe in a dragon, a villain, a hero, a talking car ? a character who exists nowhere in the physical world except in the sound of your voice.
That is the magnificent reality of being a voice actor, and this illustrated nonfiction guide brings young readers ages 10 to 14 all the way inside it ? not the cartoon version of the career, but the real one.
Discover what voice acting actually demands: the years of vocal training before a performer ever books a professional job. The discipline of building a complete, emotionally alive character using nothing but breath, resonance, and imagination ? no body language, no set, no scene partner to play off. Just the voice and everything it can do. You will meet the directors, sound engineers, casting agents, and animators who work in careful coordination so that the character on screen and the voice in the booth become a single living thing for the audience.
This book covers the full range of voice-over work ? from animation and video game characters to audiobook narration, commercials, and dubbing ? and explains what each type of performance demands. You will learn how the human voice works as an instrument, how voice actors train it with precision, and how they protect it across a career that can span decades. You will explore the history of voice performance and the legendary actors whose characters became part of the cultural fabric of childhood for generations.
But this is more than a career guide. It is an honest look at what the work costs, what it gives back, and why so many voice actors say the same thing: the moment a character they created makes a kid laugh, or gasp, or feel less alone ? that invisible moment is worth everything.
For the young reader who gives every character a different voice, every story a different sound, every room a running inner performance. For the kid who feels a pull toward something that lives entirely in sound, where imagination is the only special effect. Inside these pages, you will find out what it really takes ? the vocal technique, the recording technology, the audition process, the creative fire ? and whether this calling might be yours.
Every unforgettable character began as silence. Then a voice actor opened their mouth. Maybe the next voice the world remembers is yours.
Ages 10 to 14. Illustrated nonfiction. Careers and professions.
