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Britney Spears Adds 'Novelist' to Her Resume
 
BY PAULINE M. MILLARD
Associated Press Writer
 
NEW YORK (AP) _ She sings. She dances. She promotes a certain cola like no one before her. And now Britney Spears, Pop Princess Extraordinaire, has taken time from her busy hip-grinding schedule to write a novel.
 
What a Renaissance woman!
 
"A Mother's Gift" (Delacorte, 240 pages, $14.95) by Britney he is humble and grateful for everything she has, even her homemade clothes.
 
Eventually, Holly gets an audition and lands a spot at Haverty. Once there, she feels out of place among all the other girls with their fancy store-bought clothes and cell phones. Why, Holly is such a country bumpkin that her weekly letters to her mother are handwritten because no one in Biscay has e-mail!
 
Readers should take this book for what it is: young-adult fluff. The Spears certainly won't be winning any Pulitzers for "A Mother's Gift" _ that is, assuming they wrote it, which Delacorte insists they did.
 
But if the authors do one thing well in this book, they master the art of cliche. The characters are hokey and stereotypically Southern, almost straight out of "Steel Magnolias."
 
Holly's mother Wanda, a seamstress, hangs out with a woman named Juanita, the local hairdresser. Another friend, Ruby, is known around town for her award-winning devil's food cake. Holly notes early on that towns with Super Wal-Marts are special, and the whole community comes out to see Holly take off for Haverty.
 
The situation in Biscay is described thus: "Kids who grow up in Biscay don't have much opportunity. Some of them quit school early so they can help their parents farm. A few manage to go away to college. But most of them stay there. Get a job. Get married. Get older."
 
"A Mother's Gift" provides a quick Britney fix while her wannabes wait for the release of her next CD. But predictable plot and syrupy emotions aside, the book at least encourages the pursuit of dreams even when the cards are stacked against you and you're not as fashionable as everyone else.
 
And since this lesson is coming from the one and only Britney Spears, the impressionable teen-age girls who idolize her might be more apt to learn it.