Feature: Golden Boy by A. J. Symon

Golden Boy by A.J. Symon, out this week, asks a question that every dog owner has thought at least once: what would your dog be like if they were human? When Emma Branch accidentally turns her golden retriever Hudson into a human teenager using a science experiment gone wonderfully wrong, Hudson becomes the football star her town desperately needed, because of course he does. He is a golden retriever. That got us thinking…what would our collective 5 dogs do with their lives if they were human? Check it out below and tell us what your pets would be up to in their human forms!

Golden Boy

by A. J. Symon
Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
on August 25, 2026
Bookshop
Goodreads

When the beloved family golden retriever becomes human, a girl’s relationships with her family and herself transform in ways she never thought possible in this heartwarming and funny young adult novel.

Science-obsessed, teen-genius Emma Branch is used to being the odd one out—in her family, among her classmates, and in her small town that only ever seems to care about football. She doesn’t mind being all alone; in fact, she prefers it. Besides, who needs friends when she has a best friend already—her golden retriever, Hudson.

But when Hudson gets into an accident, Emma can’t bear to lose her only friend. Luckily, she’s been working on an experimental substance for her school science project that could help him out. All it was supposed to do was heal Hudson, not…turn him human?!

Emma, her family, and the whole town is about to learn just how a golden retriever can change hearts and minds for the better—that is, after causing a big, old mess first.

Dogs with Jobs

Kelly’s Pack

I have two special needs American Pitbull Terriers, who were rescued 3 years apart, but are biologically brothers. Teddy & Buddy Beans, my house hippos, both are deaf, and Beans is mostly blind. Being disabled doesn’t mean unable! So let’s talk jobs.

Teddy is my farmer. Farmer Ted. He loves the garden! He loves eating the tomatoes right off the vine. He is even known to grab anything he can reach, snap peas, cucumber, once he grabbed a hot pepper… but you know he loves it and he hasn’t ever stopped. He even chases the groundhogs, birds, and bunnies away which can be very helpful.

Beans would be a landscaper. He loves grass so much – he even eats it. However his pallet is so perfect, he knows what lawns are being treated with nasty chemicals and which are organic and healthy. We usually say on the walk that his all you can eat salad bar is up ahead!

Christy’s Pack

Foxy is fifteen years old, three pounds, and a chihuahua, which means she has spent a decade and a half perfecting the art of maximum impact with minimum accountability. As a human, Foxy would absolutely work in threat assessment. She would clock every risk in the room, issue a sharp and authoritative warning, and then walk away with complete plausible deniability before anyone could ask a follow up question.

Rosie is ten years old and a lab mix who has appointed herself the referee rufferee of this household, which as a human would translate directly into HR. Not the kind of HR that files paperwork. The kind that shows up when there is conflict, plants herself in the middle of it, and stares at everyone until they work it out. She is very good at this. Nobody asked her to do it. She does not care.

Duffy is four years old and a goldendoodle and he is a himbo in the purest and most affectionate sense of the word. As a human, Duffy would be in sales. He would be excellent at it. He would have no idea why. He would show up every day with the same enormous energy and zero memory of anything that happened the day before and somehow close every deal anyway because everyone just wants to be around him. Employee of the month. Every month. And he would probably fall up in his career without even trying.