Aggie is a small brown-and-white dog about to be spayed, and the surgery is a scary prospect for Aggie’s young owner. “Will Aggie get hurt? What if she gets hungry? Can I wait for her here?” Instead it’s a long day of waiting at home and a night in an Aggie-less bed before his family can pick Aggie up the next day. It takes a few more days before Aggie—in her “lamp-head” collar that the little boy transforms into a lion’s mane—starts acting like herself again. And two weeks pass before Aggie can run and play like she used to in this terrific book for beginning readers that is fine-tuned to a child’s feelings of anxiety and love. Lori Ries’s perfectly pitched text is paired with Frank W. Dormer’s pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations that sparkle with moments of unexpected humor. (Ages 4–7)