Britney's book - sugary sweet fun for fans

"Britney Spears' Heart To Heart" confirms what most Britney fans already suspected: Britney Spears was, and is, an average girl with an average voice who has both an unusually supportive (and possibly pushy) mother and a burning desire to perform.

The book is peppered with photos of a young and remarkably cute Britney. These aren't your everyday gap-toothed grin, popsicle-stain-down-the-shirt childhood photos, though. Each one shows Britney in a different pose and costume, holding multiple awards and looking every bit like a teen star in training.

The book opens with two sugary-sweet introductions, one by Britney and the other by her mother Lynne. Here's a taste:

"Back home, folks joke that my mama and I can complete each other's sentences. It's true - and besides that, she calls me at exactly the moment I need her most. Don't ask me how she does it. Somehow she senses what I'm feeling, even if we're thousands of miles apart." -- Britney

"Writing this book with Brit has been a labor of love for both of us. We've shared so much over the past eighteen years, and we still do. (You should see our phone bills!) What I hope you take away from our efforts is a better understanding of who Britney is (who knows her better than her mama?) and of the power of love, faith, and family. If you believe these things and follow your heart, the sky is the limit." -- Lynne

The entire book continues this way. Britney says something about her childhood, Lynne responds with the mother's perspective of the same event. And on and on.

"Heart To Heart" is less a biography than an outpouring of emotion between Britney and her mom.

What is interesting, however, is getting an inside look at the ordinary girl behind the pop facade.

There are snippets of a likeable and very human Britney: the girl who wants to stay out a bit later than she should, pierce her belly-button, and dream about Ben Affleck, and wishes for a few extra moments of alone time.

But the human moments are few and far between, often hidden between paragraphs that read, "I'm so blessed," and "Someone pinch me - it's me with Ricky Martin and Celine Dion!"

When Britney lets down her guard, however, she reveals moments of self-doubt and disappointment, starting with her "Star Search" let down.

"When Ed announced that my challenger had beaten me (by only a quarter of a star), I remember I gave that boy a big hug. Then I walked offstage and burst into tears. I went over and over it again in my head. What had I done wrong? The boy who'd won felt so bad for me, and so did my mama. I'd wanted to win so badly, and I knew everyone back home was watching me and I had let them down. How could I face them?"

Britney's embarrassment and disappointment in the face of defeat are hinted at again in this month's issue of "Rolling Stone".

"Of course I wanted to win," Britney told the magazine about her Grammy loss to Christina Aguilera. "But it was more of a disappointment to me to be letting the other people around me down. My mom wanted me to win so bad. And my dad. I felt kind of sad that I let them down."

Although Lynne spends most of the book insisting she didn't push her daughter but instead selflessly gave up everything to move to New York with Britney, we get the feeling that there may be more than a bit of guilt on Britney's conscience and an almost overwhelming need to succeed.

There are several points in the book in which Lynne seems over-involved, too eager, and a bit manic about pushing Britney onto the stage. As Britney describes prepping for a performance at an arts-and-crafts festival at age eight, the reader gets the sense of Lynne's desire to glam her daughter up and parade her on the stage.

"Mama prepared me as she always did, taking her lipstick out of her purse and dabbing it on my lips and cheeks ..."

On the other hand, whose mother is perfect? Lynne obviously cares about her daughter's well-being and, of course, we can't forget that she created a pop star worth millions of dollars, not a monster.

If you're not hungrily searching for the possibility of a controlling stage mom or a lost and lonely pop star, but are instead simply a Britney fan who wants to hear about her rise to fame from the star herself, this book's for you.

There is no dirty gossip. We never learn anything about a possible romance with Justin Timberlake of *Nsync, for instance, although there are some photos of them together. There's not even a snide comment about Christina Aguilera.

But there are plenty of memories that reveal a very human, sometimes shy, very lucky teenager. Take Britney's story of auditioning for record companies.

"We went into a local studio in Louisiana and recorded my vocals over the music tracks. Then Larry [her manager] flew me into New York City on a Thursday morning and we went to six different offices that day - two music publishers and four labels. At each office, I would have to sing (to some karaoke tapes, because that was pretty much all I had) and answer questions for a bunch of top record executives. Lordy, I have never been more nervous in my whole life!"

Lynne's contributions are mildly interesting but, let's be honest, we'd rather hear about how Britney felt the first time she recorded in the studio than how Lynne felt about letting her "baby" go on tour without her.

Unfortunately, Lynne's role in the book is much bigger than her daughter's, but fans can always skip through her sections and go straight to Britney's -- easily identifiable thanks to larger type -- and, of course, the photos.

This is not a tell-all book full of traumatic childhood memories or battles with various eating disorders (a.k.a Geri Halliwell's biography). This is a "Gee, isn't life great and aren't we lucky and mom and daughter are the best of friends" book that unwittingly reveals the human side of one of the world's most popular pop stars.

If you already love Britney, this book will make you love her even more. She comes across as down-to-earth and constantly excited by the "cool" things she gets to do, but she also allows her frustration and disappointments come through.

If you weren't a Britney Spears fan to begin with, "Heart To Heart" will just nauseate you, so avoid it - it wasn't meant for you anyway.

Someday, when Britney is older, she may write a book all by herself that tells us more than "Heart To Heart" does.

But that's for another time, when "Baby One More Time" is a distant memory.