Lynne Spears: You're still my brave little girl

She praises Federline as a "caring daddy" and says Britney Spears is "an amazing mother," but only when at her best. Lynne Spears also writes warmly of her daughter's former boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, but says the willful nature of the young couple helped break them up.

The bottom came in the past two years with Britney Spears' increasingly disturbing public behavior and her drugged private life in her Malibu, Calif., house. Lynne Spears writes that she was distraught as then-manager Sam Lufti told her he was grinding pills and putting them in Britney's food, hoping to induce a coma that would enable doctors to cure her of all addictions.

Britney Spears was hospitalized twice this year, the second time in February, when paramedics took her to the psychiatric ward of the UCLA Medical Center, where her mother says she finally received the care she needed.

It was, Lynne Spears writes, a "turning point" for the entire family.

On Sunday night, Britney Spears had clearly recovered from last year's fiasco at the MTV Video Music Awards, when she bumbled her way through a performance of "Gimme More." This time, Spears nabbed three VMAs, including video of the year.

"Wow, thank you, I'm in shock right now. I was not expecting this," Spears, looking spectacular in a shimmering silver dress, said as she accepted her third trophy of the evening for "Piece of Me."

Mother and daughter are close again, Lynne Spears writes, and Britney remains a "brave little girl who sang to the skies" so long ago.