The English Roses

A picture book by Madonna? When this first made it to the bookstore where I worked, that was my immediate thought. I tend to be extremely skeptical of children's books written by celebrities. I actually never read it. Recently, my girls received it as a gift, and I put aside my assumptions and read the story. I always thought the artwork looked appealing, but the story pleasantly surprised me with interesting characters and a positive message.

The tale follows several fashionable young friends. Four girls - Nicole, Amy, Charlotte, and Grace - call themselves the English Roses. They do everything together. They are readers and dancers, active, and very feminine. They are also jealous of Binah, a gorgeous but lonely girl who the English show more Roses shun out of envy. One night, at a sleepover, Nicole's mum has a chat with the Roses. She encourages them to get to know Binah, and not judge her by her looks.

The girls feel chastised, and that night they share a dream. A fairy godmother shows them what Binah's life is really like: her mother is dead, her family is poor, and she and her dad spend their days hard at work to keep the family running. When the fairy godmother offers to let any of them switch places with Binah, they all decline. The next morning, they decide to get to know Binah. Soon, the English Roses are five girls instead of four, and everyone around them notices what special girls they are.

This is a sweet story. The message of not judging others, and trying to walk in someone else's shoes, is always powerful for children to hear. The characters are cute and quirky. Binah gets the most characterization, as the other four English Roses are all depicted as sharing the same tastes and interests. The art helps to differentiate them slightly - they have distinct looks, and their own dance moves. The illustrations are great. They are a combination of drawing and water color, with a hip and dainty style, vibrant colors, and creative page layouts. Also, I was delighted to discover the narrator's tone was saucy and inviting. The sentence structure has some flair, and a feel for the spoken word that makes a good story for reading aloud. However, the writing was not always polished, and I did notice multiple places where the grammar or sentences would have benefited from revision and a better construction (the English/Creative Writing major in me). The plot, too, had a few flaws. For instance, that odd meeting with the fairy godmother in a dream. The godmother did not fit the story at all; I would have preferred to see the girls discover their lesson in a more realistic fashion. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the story. I even looked it up and learned that the author has written other books about the English Roses, and am curious to see how those turned out. The girls definitely have potential for more character development and more stories. Other books from the series very well might make their way into our library. show less

These books first catch the readers eye because of the bright, vivid colors and quirky, fun illustrations on the cover. Once the book is open this color and fun continues on the pages. The pages are covered from top to bottoms with these colors and illustrations giving the reader a million things to look at.
The book diction follows suite of the happy, quirky feeling. The narrator has a voice that talks as if the reader could speak back. It makes the reader feel engaged and involved in the story as it is being told.
The English Roses are all best friends and do not want to be friend with a girl they are jealous of. Through a dream and a fairy godmother the girls come to realize their fault and jealousy and learn to look past looks and show more at the person. This book confronts jealousy head on and does a great job at working through it. show less

I enjoyed the book “The English Roses” by Madonna because of the illustrations, point of view, and characters. This book is modern fantasy because it is an impossible story that was written with a identifiable author. The illustrations of this book are pleasing to look at and are very trendy. The illustrator, Jeffery Fulrimari, did an amazing job giving each of the main characters a distinctive look with clothes that reflected their personality. The illustrations bring out each girls differences that you would not understand by only reading the text. The point of view is different than most stories because the reader do not know who is telling the story until the very end. The story is written in third person and on the last page show more you find out the character telling the story was a mouse. The characters are also very believable in the way that the four girls in the clique grew through out the story and realize, through their fairy god mother, that Binah, the prettiest girl in school, was lonely and needed a friend. Even though this story was fantasy, it seemed very real that the girls had a fairy god mother show them a day in the life of Binah and how she really needed a friend. It also felt real when the fairy god mother made the girls invisible and watched Binah do all the chores in her house. It is very easy for girls to be jealous of others and to make judgement on girls based on appearance. The story’s message was that people need to include everyone, to be kind, and everything is not as it seems. show less

Written by Madonna, this book is the story of a click of girls and their perception of another girl. The book has a surprisingly strong story line and delivers a message without being too teachy while doing it. I enjoyed this book and so did my daughters.

A surprisingly sweet story about friendship which is raised above the ordinary by the lovely illustrations which certainly captured my daughter's attention. The group of girls embrace all the nice character types you'd expect at school - studious, sporty, etc, so everyone can easily pick a favourite.
Like Lauren Child's Clarice Bean books which started out as picture books, Madonna has now produced a series of chapter books (with a matching website) for confident readers.
Madonna's books are also a cut above some of the other celeb offerings for young girls.

In my opinion this is a good book because it teaches the readers a good lesson. In the book, there is a group of four girls who are referred to as 'The English Roses.' The girls are the best of friends, have all of the same things in common, and do everything together. One of the things they have in common is pure jealousy of a girl named Binah. Binah is gorgeous and The English Roses are very jealous of that and don't hang out with her. One night, one of the girls' mother tells the girls that they should be nicer to Binah and the girls don't think anything of it. That night all of the girls have the same dream that a fairy godmother takes them to see what Binah's life is like. The girls see that Binah's mother has died so she has to do show more all of the cooking and chores while her dad is at work. They expect to see a lavish bedroom but instead Binah has a very small room with a bed, nightstand, and bookshelf in it. The English Roses feel terrible for being so mean to Binah. When they all wake up they decide to invite Binah to get together with them and they all become the best of friends. The main idea of this story is to not judge people based off of how they look. I think the characters are believable because a lot of time people judge others based on how they look, but once they get to know someone they wind up liking the person or learning they are not at all how they thought they were. The writing is very descriptive. For example, when the girls first see Binah's life she is scrubbing the kitchen floor. The text says, "And there, on her hands and knees, was Binah, scrubbing the floor. Sweat was dripping from her forehead, and she looked tired." I think the description of how Binah looked really adds a lot to the effect of her actions. show less

This was a fun book to read. This story had a lot to do with its characters. The four group of girls that called themselves the English Roses were not very friendly when a new girl arrived in town. These girls were best friends and all had similar attitudes. My favorite character was the fairy godmother. She came to the girls in a dream and wanted to show the girls how the new girl lived. The new girl lost her mother and had to do many chores. The girls started to become nicer and let the new girl into the English Roses. The other part of this book was that entertaining was the illustrations. The pictures were very detailed and connected with the words. When one girl was, “green with envy,” the picture of the girl was actually green show more with and angry look on her face. The message of this story was to always be nice to each other, because you never know what other people are going through. Their life can be very tough, but unless you talk to that person you may never know. Do not make their lives harder by being mean with no reason. show less