The English Roses The English Roses The English Roses is a children's picture book written by American entertainer Madonna, released on September 15, 2003, by Callaway Arts & Entertainment. The publishing company's owner Nicholas Callaway had always wanted the singer to write a children's book. Madonna took up the opportunity after her second marriage and being inspired by her Kabbalah teacher and her studies of Jewish mysticism. She wanted to write stories where the female protagonists have a more active role than in traditional fairy-tales. Madonna presented five stories to Callaway, who chose "The English Roses" as the first to be published. The
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