Customer Reviews

The English Roses

5 star:		(174)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(41)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I mistakenly trusted Madonna and bought this book after only flipping through. As a mother of two daughters, I have now hid the book so it is not chosen for our reading time. I find it full of all the wrong messages..beauty as the focus attribute, jealously and envy as part of a child's everyday existence, social clique acceptance. These combined with the condescending technique of scolding the reader and assuming the reader's thoughts and comprehension make the book an insensitive, insulting and shockingly irresponsible effort from a person I previously and consistently admired as an artist and mother.

If you are even considering buying this bit of tripe from Madonna, my best advice to you is don't. There is absolutely nothing about it to recommend. The text is way too long, poorly written, and not at all interesting. Even the pictures are not enough to keep a young child interested long enough to sit through it. The "moral" isn't even thinly veiled, but is like sitting through a bad sermon. The only reason I can think of that this book was ever published is because of its author. I would give it no stars if the form would let me, and two thumbs down.

Having read hundreds of children's books over the years, I was willing to keep an open mind. Against my better judgement (and the hundreds of reviews warning me not to), I still went ahead and purchased this book. What a mistake! I must admit, the illustrations are beautiful and very engaging and I was almost able to forgive the words on the page... Almost.

Madonna's writing is patronising and, quite frankly, rude! I was faced with the question of "Why is she mad at me? I didn't ask that!" when Madonna's writing informed my child to "Stop interupting (her)". Honestly, sometimes that style of writing can be done fantastically well and with humour, but Madonna's "wit" and "style" are just rude. There was more than one occasion when we put the book down and considered not reading any more. Unfortunately, we kept going. What a waste of 48-pages.

As for the story, it is basically the simple notion that you shouldn't judge people by their appearances and that even 'perfect' people have problems. A good lesson, but I think it was lost in the last few pages when the girls (named the English Roses) made friends with Binah and they ALL became beautiful and popular and without problems. Hrm.

I give it 2 stars - mainly for the illustrations. They really are gorgeous and they alone are worth the money. The story, however, isn't worth a cent. I don't recommend it at all. Hopefully Madonna's next efforts at writing will be more encouraging!

With a distinct narative style ment to be read aloud, this book is a sweet tale of friendship. In the age of Reviving Ophelia, a cautionary tale may be just what we needed.

I have tried to read this book twice to my girls (who received it as a birthday present), but was not able to make it beyond cliches like "skin like milk and honey" and the narrative's fifth-grade heavy-handedness.

The truly sad thing is there are writers who love kids and appreciate children's literature (as opposed to the highly patronizing Madonna), who have dedicated themselves to writing for children (a finely crafted children's book, a la Sendak, is as hard to write as poetry), yet will not receive one-hundredth the hype and publicity churned for this drek. In fact, many deserving works may not even get published, while Madonna gets signed for a series of five (five!) books.

This trend of authors (Madonna, Jay Leno, Jamie Lee Curtis) published for their celebrity rather than for the quality of their prose reflects a truly sad state within the children's publishing industry. I'd use a more colorful term to describe such children's publishers, but there might be kids reading this review.

Now, first of all, I own several Madonna albums and am a fan of her music--I have been for 20 years.But being a singing star does not instantly make someone a great children's author, and Madonna is not there yet--though the potential may be.

People tend to think that writing children's books is a snap, thus the proliferation of celebrity children's books these days. But there is nothing harder than writing for children, and it shows in this book.

The plot is, to say the least, pedestrian. This is a morality fable , where the message hits you over the head with a sledge hammer, and there is no great storyline surrounding the purpose. The Berenstain Bears have been doing the same for years, with a lot more style!

Madonna has a nice storytelling voice--I think she's got potential. I found myself chuckling at the way the story was told even as I was wincing at the plot.But I think if she was a ordinary author rather than a celebrity any editor would have looked at her and said "Mrs Ritchie, it's got potential, but it's not good enough to publish." Instead, they went for selling a celebrity book, and I expect the next 4 will be more of the same. Too bad,especially for Madonna. She wouldn't have settled for being considered a second rate star as a singer, but as a writer she's been allowed to publish a book that will be bought for her name as a star, not for its quality as a story.

A rose by any other name would have never been published. WIthout mentioning the author, this book is a formulaic tale of jealousy and friendship that misses its mark about discrimination. The moral of the story: pretty girls have problems too. A child reading or hearing this book is meant to believe that four little girls disliked a much prettier girl and assumed that the prettier girl had a perfect life. (This type of jealousy usually doesn't strike girls until roughly the fifth or sixth grade, but this book is written for much younger children who may not understand the concept.) In the end, the four girls accept the beautiful one because she has lost her mother and must take care of her father. Does this really teach children tolerance and acceptance? What if the girl had lived in a beautiful house and had chauffers driving her to school? Would it then be acceptable to mistreat her or ignore her? The narrator openly chastises the reader a couple of times, an interesting device, but not an effective one. The writing is very poor and the story dull.
This is simply a self-serving piece of fluff from the master of media manipulation. The beautiful girl, Binah, is obviously based on Madoona in her own childhood. It is clearly Madonna's right to use herself as a character basis, but there are so many more important things that she could be teaching. Madonna took herself from that position to where she is now by sheer determination and hard work. She spent much of her life challenging accepted roles and stereotypes and fought social injustice through music and images. We may not all agree on some of the things that Madonna has done with her power, and clearly none of us would place her previous foray into the publishing business anywhere near our children, but we have to admit that the girl has a knack for taking issues of discrimination into the public arena. Clearly she could have talked about some more poignant form of discrimination than one based on how cute her protagonist is. Give her credit for making sure that the girls were all drawn to look to be of different ethnic backgrounds,anyway. Also, be careful of who you give approval to as a moral or ethical rolemodel for your children. Remember that this is a woman who only a couple of weeks ago shared passionate kisses with two women who were half her age within a matter of about 20 seconds in front of the world. Clearly not material for a five-year-old to try to comprehend. If you want to give money to charity, write a check. If you want to teach your children ethics and morality, lead by example and get a better book. This is not worth your time or money.