Geri Halliwell launches kids' books

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell is back on the "Girl Power" trail -- but this time she is penning children's books about a feisty nine-year-old.

Halliwell, following in the literary footsteps of fellow singers Madonna and Kylie Minogue, announced on Thursday that she is publishing a series of six books she started writing when she was pregnant.

The tales of her heroine Ugenia Lavender will be published under a punishing schedule -- a book a month from May next year. She is also recording a special song to accompany them and will be reading the audio editions.

"She is the rebirth of Girl Power," Halliwell told Reuters in an interview to mark her signing a world rights publishing deal with Macmillan Children's Books.

"It is time to hand on the baton of Girl Power through a different medium," she said.

Halliwell, who shot to fame in the 1990s when the manufactured pop band the Spice Girls sold over 35 milllion albums around the world, has penned her own songs and written two volumes of autobiography.

But fiction is much more fun.

"It is just amazing. I can make anything happen. It is like playing God," she said of her Lavender adventures.