Seems that every girl has a vivid memory of when they got their ears pierced. Mine was at Beadazzled at the mall with that earring-gun contraption that fueled my nightmares for months. My mother’s was at the hands of her uncle, a needle and a well-placed ice cube. (Ack!) No matter the situation, we all remember that fateful day and what it meant to us. For me, it meant long dangly earrings. Earrings with stars. Earrings with unicorns. Even earrings with (now, remember this was the 80’s) feathers. And for the months leading up to my fateful bejewelment, I thought about it constantly and what a rite of passage it was. Judith Viorst (of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day fame) has captured that sentiment perfectly in her book, Earrings! which tells the story of a little girl who will do ANYTHING if her parents would just agree to let her pierce her ears. And with deals like walking the dog and cleaning her room every day for a year, how could those parents resist? For anyone who has ever wanted something so badly they’re willing to even be nice to their little brother, this is the book for you…and a fun read if in fact you have a little one doing some earring wheelin’ and dealin’ right now…