The English Roses admonishing her older provocative self. Madonna's narration was described by Ginny Dougary as "bossy". She also found parallels with the singer's childhood in "The English Roses". "Slate"s Polly Shulman found the book to be "charmless, didactic" and egoistic since she felt it revolved around Madonna and her daughter. Shulman added that ""The English Roses" is a dull little thing, though not incompetent. Madonna does understand the basic structure of storytelling—perhaps too well", with multiple cliches present while making the titular characters "so passive that they might as well be good." David Kipen of the "San Francisco Chronicle" humorously said that
The Children of the King The Children of the King The Children of the King is a 2012 children's novel by Sonya Hartnett. It is about the adventures of a mother and her two children who have been evacuated from London to the country side during World War II. "The Guardian", in its review of "The Children of the King" wrote "This delicious novel is rich in irony, both linguistically and structurally." and concluded "She [Hartnett] takes her readers into the lush jungle of language and leaves them there, entranced by its sounds." "The Horn Book Magazine" wrote "As always, Hartnett's gift for language deftly