Through the Storm, by Lynne Spears

Okay, let me say from the start that I've never been a Britney-fan. I love cutesy pop music (I was an original New Kids on the Block fanatic, and don't get me started on Milli Vanilli!!), but the fact that I am extremely picky about who my daughters are exposed to meant that I never got into the bare-midriff, questionable lyrics, and overly flirtacious music of Ms. Spears. So I never bothered to keep up with all the drama surrounding her life and fame over the years. However, I am a book freak, and Britney's mom just wrote one.

Lynne Spears just finished a book entitled, Through the Storm, A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World. The publishers, Thomas Nelson, offered a free copy of the book to the first 200 folks who agreed to blog about what they read, so here I am. You just can't beat a free book. (Ask the librarians of the three local branches, who know us all by name...)

If you read a lot, you may be disappointed in the style of her writing. Lynne jumps around quite a bit, with her story going from her own childhood to her adult life back to her parents' childhoods and so on, so much so that I was dizzy keeping up at times. Not a real sequential story-line. And if you're looking for the dirt on her now famous daughters, there's none of that, thankfully. (Britney's little sister Jamie Lynn, starred on Disney's Zoey 101, and is now infamous for her teen pregnancy.)

What you'll find is a really honest story of a small-town Southern family that got caught up in the hoopla of sudden fame, and had already gotten into quite a few messes before they knew what hit them. This mother readily admits that she made lots of mistakes along the way, some of which her children paid for in the long run. From the perspective of a parent, I can look back already at some times I've trusted the "professionals" rather than my instinct (I'm still so sorry that I held Camille down to have blood drawn by a quack doctor instead of going with my gut feeling that something wasn't right there). Lynne left some pretty important situations to be decided by "the pros" as well, costing some of her daughters' innocence and lots of heartache.

It's evident that she loves her children, though, and that she has a relationship with the Lord that has held her through some pretty tough times. It is refreshing in this day and age to find someone who is truthful about her shortcomings, and who is still praying and believing that her children will return to their Christian roots.

One thing I really like about this book is that the author said she wrote it for her children, to give them a look into her heritage and her life as a woman, and not just as their mom. She wanted them to understand who she was in an effort to understand some of the decisions she made. While the general feel of the book is that Lynne is defending her motherhood and trying to set the record straight on her own behalf, she repeats throughout that she wishes she had been more proactive in her children's lives. I don't feel so bad now for being called overprotective. Thanks, Lynne, and keep praying. ;)

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