The English Roses writing children's books. Madonna's Kabbalah teacher had asked her to share the wisdom she had gained through her studies of Jewish mysticism in the form of stories meant for children. The singer felt this was a "cool challenge", although it was an "out-left-field" idea completely different from her musical endeavors. While reading stories to her children at bedtime, Madonna found the books lacked spiritual messages. She also felt that the stories' fairy-tale characters, like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, appeared passive and were moved around according to the princes' wishes. Madonna, who was inspired by stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest
The English Roses because their lives might be harder than ours." The reviewer noted Jewish influences in the story with the name Binah, and the character calling her father "papa" and wearing a "shmatte" on her head. Kate Kellaway of "The Observer" described the story as "written in language that veers between Hilaire Belloc and breakfast TV", finding the tone arch and strained but containing charm. She felt Fulvimari's illustrations made the book look like "a party invitation with his pictures of a garlanded, girly existence: each English rose a fashion-plate, with a doe-eyed stare, caught up in a whirl of blue butterflies,