Golden retriever turns football star in Atlanta author’s YA debut

I don’t know about anyone else’s social media feed, but there was a minute during the COVID-19 pandemic when mine was filled with funny memes and videos extolling the virtue of boyfriends with “golden retriever energy.” You know the type — upbeat and playful, sociable and chill, quick to smile, eager to please.

That’s the concept behind “Golden Boy” (Simon & Schuster, $19.99), a new young adult novel by Atlanta author A.J. Symon coming out Tuesday. Science nerd Emma Branch is a high school sophomore living in a small coastal town in South Carolina, dreaming of the day she becomes a veterinarian. When her beloved golden retriever Hudson nearly dies from a congenital heart condition, Emma injects him with an experimental drug she hopes will prolong his life. Instead, it turns Hudson into a blond-haired boy.

He’s not boyfriend material, though. Hudson channels his golden retriever energy into becoming a star football player and an agent of change who helps bring out the best in the whole student body.

But the question remains: Is this new kid in school who goes by the name Bud Golden good enough to end Sparta High School’s losing streak and save Emma’s football coach father from getting fired?

Author A. J. Symon and his dog Bubba. (Courtesy of Simon & Schuster)

“Golden Boy” is Symon’s first book, although he’s had a long career as a writer in Los Angeles, where he wrote screenplays for original Showtime productions, and Las Vegas, where he wrote variety shows.

Inspired by a game of fetch with his golden retriever Spiffy, Symon had kicked the idea of “Golden Boy” around in his head for a long time.

“Spiffy got it in his head he was going to play keep away,” said Symon, 60, speaking from his home in Barnesville. “I threw the ball for him once and never got it back. I ended up chasing him all over the yard for an hour. ... I thought, my gosh, if that dog was human he’d be the world’s best football player. That’s when a light bulb went off, and I thought, oh, I think there’s a story somewhere in there.”

Symon had moved back to Atlanta in 2021 to be close to his aging mother when he finally sat down and wrote the novel.

“The impetus came when two or three years ago I lost my golden retriever, Chip, and it was very, very sudden. It was an aggressive form of cancer. I was so upset, and I kind of ended up writing my way out of it, just channeling my grief over losing him into joy and sharing that joy with the world,” he said.

Asked to describe golden retriever energy, Symon summed it up in one word: “Bliss.” He should know. He’s had five of them over the years. Currently he has one named Bubba.

When it came to manifesting that energy in the body of a human boy, Symon said his goal was to make Bud Golden’s spirit shine.

“People are just attracted to him, and he’s just so sweet to everybody. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’s outgoing. He’s everything that Emma is not, which is why he’s such a great foil for her.”

Brilliant but socially awkward, Emma struggles to connect with others. She studies her cohorts’ behavior and tries to mirror them to blend in. Although she’s never labeled as such, she appears to be on the autism spectrum.

“She definitely is,” said Symon when asked to clarify. “I think if I were a kid now I probably would be. And I think my mother was for sure.”

Symon’s mother, Judy Sophianopoulos, was the inspiration for Emma’s mentor, high school science lab director Wanda Bailey.

“In her era, she was really a groundbreaking scientist,” said Symon. “She ran the chemistry lab at Emory University. In the ’70s, that was not a typical thing. You didn’t see a lot of women in science. She also would probably be somewhere on the spectrum. I think that runs in our family.”