The English Roses book and its characters were named after Madonna's daughter Lourdes' school friends at Lycée Franco-Libanais Tripoli. It tells the story of four friends who are jealous of a girl called Binah. However, they come to know that Binah's life is not easy and decide to include her in their group. A moral tale, while writing "The English Roses" Madonna drew from her own personal experiences, including her mother's death at an early age. Jeffrey Fulvimari spontaneous line drawings illustrated the book. The book was released simultaneously in more than 100 countries worldwide and translated into 42 languages. Promotional activities included
Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award Oppel, in 2011. Nine books named CLA Book of the Year for Children have also won the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature, or the preceding Canada Council Children's Literature Prize, or earlier Governor General's Award for juvenile fiction (in all, conferred for English-language books from 1949 to 1958 and 1975 to present). The writers and CLA award dates were Richard S. Lambert 1950, Farley Mowat 1958, Kevin Major 1979, Cora Taylor 1986, Janet Lunn 1987, Michael Bedard 1991, Tim Wynne-Jones 1994, Pamela Porter 2006, Susin Nielsen 2013. Thus "Shadow in Hawthorn Bay" (Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1986) by