The English Roses Madonna hosting a tea party at London's Kensington Roof Gardens, as well as appearances on television talk shows and at book signings. Commercially, "The English Roses" debuted atop "The New York Times" Children's Bestseller list and sold over a million copies worldwide. However, it received mixed reviews from book critics who did not find the story interesting and panned the characterizations and its moralistic tone. Fulvimari's illustrations also received a mixed response. Madonna went on to release merchandise associated with "The English Roses" and further sequels to the book. The English Roses are four girls—Charlotte, Amy, Grace, and Nicole—who attend
Ring a Ring o' Roses article from the "Brooklyn Eagle". A group of young children (the eldest being about seven) form a ring, from which a boy takes out a girl and kisses her. An early version of the rhyme occurs in a novel of 1855, "The Old Homestead" by Ann S. Stephens: <poem> A ring – a ring of roses, Laps full of posies; Awake – awake! Now come and make A ring – a ring of roses.</poem> The novel goes on to describe a nineteenth-century Fourth of July celebration by children housed in a hospital in Roosevelt Island, New York (then known as