Posted on 09/20/2003 11:24:36 AM PDT by hoosierskypilot
Kids come after sex, right? So maybe it's only fitting that Madonna's first literary venture after her 1992 debut, "Sex," is a children's book.
"The English Roses" (Callaway, $19.95), released Monday, is a picture book -- but not the way the racy "Sex" was a picture book. The new book is for ages 6 and up, the 48 pages heavily illustrated by Jeffrey Fulvimari.
It follows a clique of girls called "the English Roses" who envy a beautiful, smart, athletic, kind-but-annoyingly-perfect girl named Binah, who happens to have no friends.
Jealous, they shun the lonely girl until they find out -- via a dream, a fairy godmother and some magic dust -- that she's lost her mother, slaves over chores and has a lousy room. Then they're nice to her, and the happy ending kicks in.
Though it's a heavily hyped but serious attempt at children's lit -- a popular hobby for celebrities -- and is scheduled to be the first in a series of five stories, Madonna shouldn't wait for an endorsement from the Sacramento Public Library.
"It's really horrible," says youth services librarian Rebecca Higgerson, who works at the central branch. "It really is truly awful."
And Higgerson is just getting started.
Though she believes that Madonna is a "brilliant" musician, she doesn't think anyone will like the book. To test the theory, she passes it to an unsuspecting sixth-grader at the library with her mom.
Only read it as long as you want to, Higgerson advises Amy Bush, 11.
Amy flips through to page 15 -- and quietly closes the book, looking up expressionless.
She's done.
"And she's an avid reader," remarks her mother, Erwina.
"(The author and illustrator) show you the problem ... (but) the problem's not that interesting," says Amy, who attends Foulks Ranch Elementary School in Elk Grove. "I've read a lot of books like this before."
Before the mudslinging continues, the positive parts should be noted.
Higgerson and Amy do like the illustrations.
OK, back to the trash talking.
"She just hits you over the head with a hammer" to ram through the moral lesson -- that is, jealousy is bad, Higgerson says.
"Kids don't like to be preached to," agrees Debbie Douros, another librarian at the central branch, in charge of coordinating the selection of books. "That went out with the Victorians."
It is perhaps the first time Madonna has been compared to a Victorian prude.
In publicity material, Madonna says the book project began as a way to share the "spiritual wisdom" she's gained from studying Kabbalah, a tradition of Jewish mysticism. Apparently, she also could have picked it up from the library's children's section.
"That same story's been told a million times," Higgerson says.
She figures Madonna, who lost her own mother at an early age, created Binah in her own image, a girl who seems to have everything. But the performer said in a televised appearance Tuesday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that she was inspired more by her 6-year-old daughter, Lourdes, who belongs to a group of friends called "the English Roses" and gets "singled out" by other students because, well, she's Madonna's daughter.
The Material Mom says she'll donate profits to an organization that teaches spirituality to kids, including her daughter.
"My creativity was not motivated by ego or greed for the first time in my life," she says in the publicity material.
Lourdes also helped with editing.
"She told me when the story was boring," Madonna says in the prepared comments.
Perhaps the youngster should have been more rigorous.
Oprah, by the way, loves the book.
"I think it's really, really beautifully done," Winfrey cooed on her show. "You did a great job, a really great job."
Callaway Arts & Entertainment must think others will like it too, because it released more than 1 million copies in 30 languages and more than 100 countries simultaneously. Early reviews of the book have been mixed, but it's already a best-seller on Amazon.com. (Preliminary sales figures won't be available until next week, according to Callaway. Her second book, "Mr. Peabody's Apples," is scheduled to be released Nov. 10.)
But Higgerson says she wouldn't bring it to her weekly "storytime" sessions, when she reads to young children.
No, if Madonna weren't the author, Higgerson and Douros agree, this book never would have been published.
Which raises the question: Was Madonna really the author? Apparently, it's worth asking, given that publisher Nicholas Callaway even addressed it in the press materials:
"Did Madonna really write these books?"
"Yes. Of course."
Based on the Sacramento librarians' response, Madonna might want to avoid getting the credit.
The librarians take special offense for a specific reason:
The trash that often trickles from celebrity pens gets all the media attention, overshadowing good literature. (Jamie Lee Curtis' quality books are an exception, they note.)
If the book weren't written by Madonna, Higgerson says, "we wouldn't even have discussed it this much."
Yes indeed. Being a Children's Authoress and kissing Britney Spears at the MTV awards don't really jibe...unless one views it through the attention lens.
Mothers Against Mothers Like Madonna
MADONNA HAS SAID the book was inspired by her studies of Kabbalah, an esoteric form of Judaism, but some critics are charging that she’s using her fame to proselytize her beliefs to impressionable youngsters.
“Star Launches Kids’ Book Based on the Kabbalah Cult,” read one UK headline.
“As Madonna Pens Children’s book on Kabbalah, Is the Sect Exploiting Her Devotion to It?” asks another headline, which goes on to discuss the “Cult Guru and his ‘Rich Puppets.”
Fodder for the critics is that the book’s main character is Binah, which is Hebrew for wisdom. Madonna’s spokeswoman couldn’t be reached for comment. MSNBC
She's trying to help a child find her inner slut.
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