The English Roses "The Guardian", poet and novelist Michael Rosen found "The English Roses" to be heavier on the moralistic side rather than being ironic, which he felt was the norm for children's books. In the same article, author Francesca Simon felt the book "has no characters, no story and there is no tension, which is a problem." Both criticized Fulvimari's illustrations with Rosen describing them as "odious pictures". Emily Nussbaum of "New York" magazine found Binah's character was "the blandest, most passive good-girl on Earth, the opposite of Madonna" and felt that by writing the book, the singer was in a way
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