A tale of two blonds

From picture books to tween angst...

Madonna, entertainer, author and celebrity-mom extraordinaire, has four new installments for her children’s book series, "The English Roses." The handsomely illustrated volumes will arrive in stores Sept. 13, says Sara Zick of Penguin Books' Young Readers division.

Launched in 2003, "The English Roses" introduced London grade-schoolers Amy, Charlotte, Nicole, Grace and Binah; a fairy godmother; a quirky teacher and heaps of life lessons for proper young ladies of about 7, which just happened to be the age of Madonna’s elder child, Lourdes.

The new books, once again accompanied by fashion illustrator Jeffrey Fulvimari's luscious drawings, are aimed at the tween set (just as, no surprise, young Lourdes is about to turn 11). The girls learn to cope with a new arrival, crushes on boys and the prospect of loss. They even offer study tips and fashion pointers, and volume No. 1, "Friends for Life," has a section for girl readers to write down their likes, dislikes and most embarrassing moments.

Kristina Lindgren

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Cinéma vérité

Madonna aside, there’s another famous blond hitting the bookshelves. Want to know what that grande dame of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve, is thinking? "Close Up and Personal: The Private Diaries of Catherine Deneuve" (Pegasus Books) offers a glimpse of her thoughts while shooting six films abroad.

The book begins with a beguiling epigraph: "Let me warn you that these are mere jottings, personal records of the shootings of films, chronicles of my doubts. Almost all were written outside France, and some a long time ago. Solitary, elated, discouraged, critical. Raw. A little remorse perhaps, but no regrets."

"Private Diaries" contains some juicy extras, including director Pascal Bonitzer’s 2004 interview with the actress. The diaries begin with her 1999 jottings while filming "Dancer in the Dark" ("To Copenhagen. Gazing at fields of rape through the plane window; they’re like a Poliakoff painting, jagged. Very sore throat. Feverish.") and extending back in time to the 1968 filming of "The April Fools" where we get the following nugget: "Dreadful costume fitting. I’m starting to think we should use Saint Laurent, and so are they.... Surprised to bump into Polanski, who persuades me into a drink at Sardi’s, where we meet Warren Beatty--he’s so smooth."

There’s much about hair and makeup and food, and fashion of course. There’s set chatter too, especially in the Bonitzer interview, in which Deneuve actually opens up about her role in cinema and her reasons for keeping her diaries in the first place: "The printed word has the weight of absolute truth. And this weight of truth endures longer than one could ever imagine."

Orli Low