I admit I almost squeed when I saw the picture of this adorable pug in a suit on a surfboard. I absolutely adore pugs and would love to have one, only my allergies would not allow me to have one full-time.

But this pug is not your ordinary pug. In fact, she seems to want to defy all of the rules. She is super active and she actually loves water. And eventually, she becomes a surfing dog, even having success after a massive setback. You get to see her story play out in real photographs. They are so CUTE!

You also get to learn a lot about surfing. I do not do well in deep water, so I have never learned much about the sport. Now I know a lot more! And you get to learn about the problems of beach pollution. So you get some good education thrown in with all of the cute.

It would be an interesting read for a kid who is into surfing. And it's a must-have for one who loves pugs.

Thank you to the publisher for fulfilling my review request via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved the story of Gidget, the Surfing Dog. As I read this to my grandson, he lost interest in parts of the book. That is because, the science of waves and surfing was a bit above him. When I skipped those sections and just read about Gidget and the other dogs surfing, he was captivated. He loved the idea of surfing dogs and wanted me to get on the computer and find more pictures and things. This book is geared to older children and adds the interest of surfing dogs into the science part of the story. The illustrations were wonderful as there were actual photos of the dogs. This would be a good book for reluctant readers, who enjoy sports and non-fiction. It could also be used to teach about the ocean and its waves. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

This book has such a wonderful story and lots of great photos. I also liked that there were som info-boxes with more information.

Note: I received a free digital copy of this book through NetGalley.

I think my opinion of this might change if I saw it in a print format- it's possible that my main issues with it (layout) would be addressed in a physical copy.

I loved the story of Gidget and how the author was able to combine a story of a dog that surfed with the science of waves/surfing. Adding in a surfing dog definitely added to the interest level for this book. However, those bits also caused some issues for me as I was reading because of the fact that they felt placed in odd locations. This is quite possibly due to the fact it is an advanced copy- and a digital one at that- but the formatting really threw me off. The captions for the photos also were on the wonky side so it was hard to tell which photos which captions went with.

Because of the formatting issues and confusion they caused I bumped this book down to 2 stars- but the story of Gidget and the melding of that with science gets 3.5 stars.

An enjoyable book for my daughter who recently watched something about dog surfing. Great photos throughout and a wonderful story overall.

Gidget the Surfing Dog by Elizabeth Rush was so much fun to read! I can see myself reading it with small kids who will love the fun pictures as well as children up to middle grade who won't have an issue with so much text. I have seen surfing dogs before but I did not realize that there were whole competitions for them! In addition to covering such a fun topic, this book is also very educational! You learn about the different types of waves, you learn about surfing, how to stay safe on the beach and in the water, and how to help the environment. I highly recommend this book both for the fun and the educational factors! The photographs are adorable!

This is the true story of Gidget packed with adorable photos. There is a lot of scientific information on waves, as well as rules for water safety. It can easily be incorporated into science lessons the kids will love!

In this book we meet real life pug Gidget and his owner Alecia and we join them on their surfing adventures as Gidget enters dog surfing competitions.



With diagrams to explain about surfing and photographs to show Gidget in action and victories they've achieved it was a fun quick read about a pet hobby/sport I didn't realise even existed!



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

While the premise behind this is fine, I kind of wish the book had just stuck to talking about Gidget. Because it doesn't--and goes off on tangents about the physics of surfing, wave formation, and plastic pollution--the book is overly long, and there's a mismatch between the tone of the main narrative (which seems aimed at very young readers) and all the science stuff (which would bore very young readers). It took me a long time to get through this one, and I didn't really like the way the main story kept getting interrupted. Gidget has an interesting history. I liked reading about how and why she got into surfing. The illness that almost sidelined her added some drama to the narrative. But it was difficult to stay emotionally engaged when the book kept slipping into scientific explanations and illustrations.

I think the audience for this one might be limited. Kids may want to read about Gidget and her surfing... but I have a feeling a lot of them are going to skip over some of the more technical pages.

This was the first book in a while that had my daughter a little emotional. She said that she found herself rooting for Gidget the whole time. Would definitely recommend! Also, love the pictures!

Review to come in March on Blog and Goodreads.

I just had to try out this book when I saw that superduper adorable cover~ Plus, I have heard of dogs surfing so I had to see who Gidget was and how good he was on a surfboard.

This book is all about Gidget, written in easy text and partially as if it is a story. Gidget is a tiny little pug who is super hyper (sounds like my kind of animal) and his owner who was looking for something so her tiny pet would have something to do as to not break down the house. We see Gidget go through various fun active things before they come across surfing. I just adored seeing how well Gidget was doing on a surfboard and how he found the one thing that Gidget absolutely loved and that was safe for him to do.

My heart broke when we learned that he had a disease that almost caused him to die, thankfully he had a miracle recovery though he still needs to take medicines. Poor Gidget! How happy I am that the doggie has bounced back.

The book also has a ton of adorable and cute pictures of Gidget and other dogs participating in competitions. Of course, I was mostly looking forward to Gidget's pictures as that is the dog I came here for. :P

Sadly, there were a few things I just wasn't into. How waves/surfing worked and the sudden trash cleaning thing on the last pages. In one case I may be interested in it in another book, and in the other case it just felt like it was pushed in because of how hot and happening it is at the moment (it is still a good cause but there is only so much I can hear about it before I tune out).

But all in all, a cute short book about Gidget. I loved that, despite it being only 50 pages, you learn all about Gidget, see competitions and more. It was filled to the brim~