The English Roses Hemingway, and Flannery O'Connor, was galvanized to write something new by herself. She wrote five stories and sent the manuscripts at the same time to Callaway, suggesting they be published together, but he wanted each story to be developed and released separately. In March 2003, it was announced that Madonna and Callaway Arts & Entertainment had signed a deal with Penguin Group to publish an original series of five illustrated storybooks for children. The first release under this deal was "The English Roses". The book and its characters were named after Madonna's daughter Lourdes' school friends at Lycée Franco-Libanais Tripoli.
The Stars and the Roses the "San Francisco Chronicle" called the piece "a short but lushly expressive suite of three orchestral songs" and wrote, ""The Stars and the Roses" needed no help in making its effect felt. With its poignant, resourceful orchestral writing and clarion text-setting, the piece illuminates Milosz's poetry (in English translation) in a subtle but evocative way." Jeff Dunn of the "San Francisco Classical Voice" similarly lauded, "The orchestration is the immediate strong point of the piece, but unlike the in-your-face symphony, Stucky's motivic content and progression may require repeated listenings for its subtleties to become manifest." Stucky rewrote the piece in