The English Roses [Hardcover]

Madonna (Author), Jeffrey Fulvimari (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

The English Roses is a story of rivalry and friendship among schoolgirls in contemporary London. Four little girls-Nicole, Amy, Charlotte, and Grace-are eleven years old and the very best of friends. They have sleepovers, picnics and ice-skating parties that exclude Binah, a beautiful girl whose seemingly perfect life makes them "green with envy." However, when a feisty, pumpernickel-loving fairy godmother takes them on a magical journey, they learn to their great surprise that Binah's life is not nearly as enviable as it had seemed. The English Roses is an inspiring story about the importance of compassion and the rewards of friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-In yet another change of public persona, Madonna turns Mother-Knows-Best moralist with a tale aimed at preteens, though packaged in picture-book format. Responding to an admonition from one of their mothers, and with additional guidance from a fairy godmother, four young fashion plates at a sleepover simultaneously dream that a classmate, ostracized because of her extreme beauty, has to do all the household chores because her mum is dead. When this actually turns out to be true, the four guiltily invite Binah into their circle, and surprise, surprise, soon they're all thick as thieves. An unseen narrator delivers this rough-hewn story in a conversational, "listen to me, I'm telling you this for your own good," tone, breaking in distractingly several times to make sure that readers are paying attention. Reflecting a background in fashion art, Fulvimari places skinny lasses with oversized eyes, dressing and posing as if they've stepped from the pages of a department store catalog, against visually bewildering expanses of scribbled filigree or loudly patterned wallpaper. All in all, this overproduced episode, the first of a projected series, will have to rely on hype rather than content or presentation to find a readership.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

K-Gr. 2. Why, it seems like only yesterday that Madonna was showing off her jiggly bits in her first publishing effort, Sex (1992). Now she has lowered the age of her target audience to the under-eight set with this first book in a series of five, this one featuring a multicolor quartet of girls who are "practically glued to each other at the hip." A girl they do not like is Binah, who is too pretty and too perfect. Enter Nicole's mother, who in a little speech for which the word didactic was invented, tells them that poor, lonely Binah could use a friend. At a sleepover, the Roses dream the same dream: a fairy godmother takes them to Binah's house, where she must do all the chores, Cinderella-like, because her mother is dead! Would any of the girls want to trade places with her now? Well, no. Awake, the Roses resolve to be kinder, stop complaining, and help Binah with her many chores. In the acknowledgements, Madonna thanks two people for sharing the secrets of storytelling with her. Apparently, they were holding back the part about originality. What is fun are Fulvimari's illustrations, wild squiggly lines brushed with color featuring English Roses who look like the popular Bratz dolls. But the poor illustrator gets neither a thank you nor even a brief bio on the flap copy. The next book in the series, Mr. Peabody's Apples, will appear in November. Perhaps it will be about a girl who learns how to share. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Callaway; 1 edition (September 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670036781
• ISBN-13: 978-0670036783
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (313 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Madonna Ritchie's recording career has spanned more than two decades, and she is recognized as one of the most successful and influential artists of modern times.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Stepford Girls, March 26, 2006

By 

My Uncle Stu (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The English Roses (Hardcover)

Reading through Madonna's children's story, I imagine Madonna herself as a child being consoled that the other girls are mean to her because they are actually jealous of her, jealous of her beauty. Lots of people have probably been told some version of this, "the other kids are just mean to you because they are jealous of..." It provides some comfort to a child, who will then grow up hopefully developing some more nuanced social skills for navigating these relationships.

With the insularity and unceasing narcissistic gratification of her unique brand of celebrity, Madonna seems to have never had to look back critically and challenge this core belief. So now we have Madonna's version of a children's story: Four beautiful stuck-up girls shun an even more beautiful stuck-up girl. Can't we all relate? Until a fairy godmother, piggish and obese yet wise, visits the girls in their dreams and informs them that the prettier girl should be pitied because her mother's dead which means she has to do extra housework. The girls wise up and start acting nicer to the girl, and the narrator winks at us and hints that this is a sort of a true story.

I have nothing against Madonna. I enjoy some of her music. I was entertained by her more provocative foray into publishing back in '92. I was amused at seeing her interviewed with her celebrity puppet rabbi at her side telling the public "Madonna has mastered Kabbalah at about a 99% level." I enjoyed her interview with David Letterman when she proclaimed that children should all be potty trained by 18 months. She's wrong, but it is fascinating to see someone with that level of confidence in ever aspect of her life. I like the sometimes British accent and I don't judge her for it, it's natural to pick up bits of an accent, especially for someone who has been well-rewarded for being a cultural chameleon. And I don't think her acting is as bad as people say. But all that aside, this is not a book that would have seen the light of day if it wasn't written by a celebrity.

It's okay though. I really want to be fair, I don't want to reject the book just because I know it's a vanity project. It speaks to some real issues about the impact of social hierarchies in childhood, although it speaks to these issues from the perspective of someone who doesn't quite see the big picture.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor, October 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The English Roses (Hardcover)

This is a weak, unimaginative book that comes across as an amateur offering at best. In fact, my eleven year old niece has written more engaging stories in her English assignments. It's a basic story with flat prose (a pretty little girl is ignored by her peers because they're jealous of her looks. In steps a fairy godmother to show them that the girl's life is actually quite sad, so they should be nicer to her). This book seems to be too basic for the age-group it's aimed at (i.e. the `peer' age of the girls in the story of 8+), yet it's probably not pertinent enough for children who tend to have picture books read to them. In my experience most toddlers are content to interact with all children (in fact younger kids invariably gravitate towards the more aesthetically pleasing of their peers). The book also skips the issue of how children ought to treat beautiful peers who don't have dead mothers. I thought that you were supposed to be nice to people no matter what. This book seems to say, okay, the kid's prettier than you but hey, be nice, her mom's dead. This is a one-dimensional offering that simply doesn't cover the real issues of jealousy and ostracism. It also seems to ignore the fact that, in today's world, it's the plain, overweight children who are usually left out. All in all, it's pretty terrible.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Patronizing, Boring, and Insulting, October 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The English Roses (Hardcover)

You know, I actually expected it to be pretty good, as I figured she had probably hired someone to "edit" it into a well-written and fun book.

Nope, she wrote it all herself. The moral? That beautiful people have problems too, and that the children of single family households are stressed slaves without childhoods. Um, how did that bit get past the PC review board?

Poorly written and insulting to anyone with only one parent, anyone who is snubbed by the "in crowd" for reasons other than being beautiful and perfect, or with a sense of literary decency.

I'm appauled at how many people enjoyed this book.