By Samantha Critchell
The Associated Press

Less than two months after her debut as a children's author, Madonna has returned to publishing with Mr. Peabody's Apples.

The book takes a more conventional approach to a picture book than Madonna's previous book, The English Roses, which debuted atop The New York Times' list of children's best sellers and remained there for five weeks.

BOOK REVIEW

Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna; Illustrated by Loren Long Callaway; $19.95 32 pages

The story in Mr. Peabody's Apples is a little hokey. It begins: "In the town of Happville (which wasn't a very big town), Mr. Peabody was congratulating his Little League team on a great game. They had not won, but no one really cared, because they'd had such a good time playing."

But when Billy Little ("who wasn't a very big boy"), Mr. Peabody's No. 1 fan, hears a rumor that Mr. Peabody is a shoplifter, Billy turns on his baseball mentor just like everyone else in town.

Being a children's picture book, though, the good guys win in the end, and the rumor monger learns his lesson. The book's full-page illustrations by Loren Long are done in a Norman Rockwell-like style, and there's a moral learned at the end.

Madonna followed these tried-and-true formulas, and that's why Mr. Peabody's Apples works and likely will entertain young readers. But it is also why the book seems a little stale.

With The English Roses, she crafted a more original story of envy and friendship, a story more complicated than Mr. Peabody's Apples.

And she used colorful line-drawn portraits by fashion artist Jeffrey Fulvimari in The English Rose. The illustrations are highly stylized and interesting, but they seem targeted more for adults' eyes than children's.

The audience for Mr. Peabody's Apples, however, is clear: grade-schoolers who need to be reminded that their actions have consequences.

In her introduction, Madonna explains that Mr. Peabody's Apples is based on a 300-year-old Ukrainian tale called The Baad Shem Tov. She says her instructor in Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, first turned her on to the story, which aims to demonstrate the power of words.

But you'd think that a celebrity with Madonna's notoriety - she's been the target of rumors for two decades - wouldn't need a centuries-old story to inspire her to write about the value of truth and the pain that comes with gossip that spreads like wildfire.

Mr. Peabody's Apples is getting an even bigger global launch than The English Roses; it will come out Monday in 36 languages and be available in more than 100 countries.

Madonna says her profits from the book will be donated to the Spirituality for Kids Foundation.

Next up in the star's five-book deal with Callaway Editions is Yakov and the Seven Thieves, due out in the spring.