Michiko Kakutani, of the New York Times, has written an excellent article on this subject titled, To Stars, Writing Books Looks Like Child's Play.

It begins with: "Once upon a time, there was a land in love with fame and brand names. By and by some famous brand-name people, holed up in their castles, discovered a new trade. They startes writing books for children." Kakutani's article ends with "so far, J.K. Rowling--never mind the Grimm brothers and Dr. Seuss--faces little serious competition in the children's book business, at least not from the celebrities who covet her celebrity and underestimate the difficulty of her art." 
 
Michiko Kakutani gives an insightful treatment of this publishing trend. It offers a scathing review of Madonna's new book, and lumps her with other celebrity authors when it says, "the problem is that these authors count on audiences being able to forget--or ignore---who they used to be. Madonna's previous venture into publishing was 'Sex'."

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

 
The article actually gives credit where credit is due, "A handful of celebrities, such as John Lithgrow and Jamie Lee Curtis, have a gift for writing for children: They know how to tell a story and how to tell it with words and pictures and whimsical wit. For others, children's books are another vanity production: Britney books, along with Britney dolls, Britney cell phones and Britney mouse pads."