Lynn Spears Book No Bombshell

Sept. 17, 2008— -- Perhaps the pictures tell the story.

The day before Lynn Spears' memoir "Through the Storm" about her famous daughters Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears was to be released, the Spears women, along with Jamie Lynn's 3-month-old baby Maddie, were photographed sitting on the curb outside Britney's Los Angeles home looking relaxed and affectionate with smiles on their faces.

The occasion was the birthday bash for Britney's sons, Sean Preston, who turned 3 on Sunday, and Jayden James, who had celebrated his second birthday two days earlier.

If the daughters were upset about the family secrets Spears spills in her tell-all -- including Britney losing her virginity at 14 and doing cocaine shortly after -- they sure didn't show it. It appears Spears' book isn't causing the family storm many predicted.

Graciella Sanchez, Jamie Lynn's agent, declined to comment for the story. Calls to Britney's rep and Lynn's publicist were not returned.

Last week, The New York Post reported that Britney was furious with her mother for detailing her past, but her rep told the paper, "This is false."

Celebrity blogs were reporting that Britney and her brother, Bryan, had yet to read the book, but Jamie Lynn was thrilled with what she had read.

Spears was quoted as saying: "Jamie Lynn loved the book. I started to cry because I told her, 'I wanted so much for you to like it.' And she got up and kissed me on the cheek and said, 'Mama, thank you so much.'"

Spears also reportedly said that writing the book helped her mend her relationship with Britney.

Albert Lee, a senior editor from US Weekly, told ABCNews.com that originally Britney worked on the book with her mother.

"Lynn Spears never intended it as a tell-all," Lee said. "It was actually, believe it or not, an advice book, saying 'I've raised two famous successful daughters.' She was never going to tell you all the sordid details. Britney and her mother even collaborated on the book together. But that was way before she shaved her head and had a shocking freefall."

Being Mom of Britney Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears

Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, which published the book, put it on hold last December, the day before it was announced to the media that Jamie Lynn, the 16-year-old star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," was pregnant.

"The book is delayed indefinitely. It's delayed, not canceled," the company told OK magazine.

At the time, the book's title was "Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World."

"Since Britney's multiple meltdowns and Jamie Lynn's pregnancy, there was no way Lynn Spears could write about mothering advice without addressing her obvious failure," Lee said.

In "Through the Storm," Spears rejected the notion that she pushed Britney into show business, writing that from the age of 3, when Britney began singing and dancing, she was focused on making it in the music business.

Spears presented herself as a loving and selfless parent who gave up her job as a school teacher for Britney's sake, but who became an increasingly powerless figure in her daughter's life. She wrote that she realized she was losing control when Rolling Stone featured a racy cover of the budding pop star in only panties and bra.

Spears also recalled feeling "shock and dismay" seeing Britney's shaved head and feeling like she had been "punched in the stomach," when she learned of Jamie Lynn's pregnancy. She wrote about being distraught after learning from then-manager Sam Lutfi that he was grinding pills and putting them in Britney's food in hopes of inducing a coma that would enable doctors to cure her of her drug addictions.

The "turning point" for the entire family came, she wrote, when Britney was hospitalized twice this year, the second time in February, and finally received the care she needed.

Today, Britney's father, Jamie, remains her court-appointed guardian and conservator of her estate. And even though she gave up custody of her boys to their father, Kevin Federline, Britney appears more involved in their lives now. She is also close to her mother again, wrote Spears, who called her "my brave little girl who sang to the skies."

Famous Family Tell-All Books

It appears that Spears's book will not shatter that closeness the way some other tell-all books by celebrities' family members have.

Lee, the editor at US Weekly, has seen these celebrity tell-all books, like Nancy Aniston's 1999 "From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir" about daughter Jennifer, come and go, usually after a relative is cut off financially or emotionally from his or her famous family member who is the family breadwinner.

"Some kind of estrangement happens," Lee said, "and the sibling or parents gets offered an insane amount of money [by a publisher]. They come out with a book, and the celebrity's publicist releases a statement saying they are disappointed, it's all lies.

"The only way a celebrity's relative could write a book about the celebrity and not totally destroy the relationship is by having that celebrity's blessing in a big way," he added.

In the case of the Anistons, the actress was apparently so angry with her mother for writing about her appearance before her nose job and other intimate details that she excluded her from her wedding to Brad Pitt.

When talk show host Oprah Winfrey found out her father, Vernon, was shopping around a memoir about raising his famous daughter, she told reporters she was "stunned."

"The book was stopped and went away," said Sarah Nelson, editor of Publisher's Weekly.

Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone, published a tell-all memoir, "Life with My Sister Madonna," in July.

"It's basic envy," psychoanalyst and family therapist Bethany Marshall told ABCNews.com about why Ciccone might have written the book about his famous sister. "When we feel envious, we want to destroy the object of our envy and bring them down, so we don't have that reminder that we are missing out on something we want."

What's missing besides the closeness he once shared with his sister is the income Ciccone once earned over two decades as a designer, choreographer, director and yes man for Madonna.

"If he was on the Madonna gravy train and she cut him off, he could feel like he's going to get his no matter what, one way or the other," Marshall said. "When people operate at primitive levels and get their feelings hurt or nose out of joint, they always want the other person to pay for making them feel neglected or like a failure."

Ciccone, 47, insisted to "GMA" that he did not write the book to get back at the pop superstar.

"I'm not taking revenge at all,'' he said. "I'm telling what I consider to be a great tale."

"I think it's a hollow victory for him," Marshall said. "It's like the kiss of Judas. When you have to betray another person to get your needs met, it's never truly satisfying."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.