Everyone please welcome Lauren Baratz-Logsted, author of The Education of Bet. Thank you so much for including me in your one question blog tour! I look forward to reading it. :)
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Lauren grew up in Monroe, CT, where her father owned a drugstore at which her mother was the pharmacist. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where she majored in psychology. She also has what she calls her “half-Masters” in English from Western Connecticut State University (five courses down, another five to go…someday!). Throughout college, she worked semester breaks as a doughnut salesperson, a job that she swears gave her white lung disease from all the powdered sugar she breathed. Upon graduation, she began work at the venerable independent spacebookseller, now sadly defunct as such, Klein’s of Westport. There, she bought and sold for the better part of 11 years. In November 1994, Lauren left the bookstore to finally take a chance on herself as a writer. Success did not happen over night. Between 1994 and May 2002 – when Red Dress Ink called with an offer to buy THE THIN PINK LINE – Lauren worked as a book reviewer, a freelance editor and writer, and a window washer, making her arguably the only woman in the world who has ever both hosted a book signing party and washed the windows of the late best-selling novelist Robert Ludlum. Since Red Dress Ink’s call in 2002, Lauren has been kept very busy with writing more novels and checking her Amazon ranking on a daily basis. She still lives in Danbury, with her husband and daughter, where she has lived since 1991.
For more info on Lauren, visit her site(s):
-Website
-Twitter
-Facebook
-MySpace
Books by Lauren:
Crazy Beautiful
Angel's Choice
Secrets of my Suburban Life
Vertigo
The Education of Bet
The Twin's Daughter (Coming out on August 31, 2010)
For more books go here: GoodReads
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The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Pages: 192
Summary: When Will and Bet were four, tragic circumstances brought them to the same house, to be raised by a wealthy gentleman as brother and sister. Now sixteen, they’ve both enjoyed a privileged upbringing thus far. But not all is well in their household. Because she’s a girl, Bet’s world is contained within the walls of their grand home, her education limited to the rudiments of reading, writing, arithmetic, and sewing. Will’s world is much larger. He is allowed—forced, in his case—to go to school. Neither is happy. So Bet comes up with a plan and persuades Will to give it a try: They’ll switch places. She’ll go to school as Will. Will can live as he chooses. But once Bet gets to school, she soon realizes living as a boy is going to be much more difficult than she imagined.
Now Available in Bookstores!
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One Question Guest Post:
In your latest YA, The Education of Bet, the female protagonist Bet, decides to disguise herself as a boy in order experience education outside her home. As a female yourself, if you were in the same predicament would you take a chance like her? Or would you follow the norm and deal with the limited education provided?
LBL: If I were in Bet's shoes I'd like to think that I would absolutely go to extraordinary lengths to achieve a good education. I come from a long line of women who don't accept the idea of being confined to conventional boxes. My mother was a pharmacy major back in the '40s when that was a very unusual thing for a woman to be. For myself, while I haven't necessarily had to fight career battles having to do with gender, I did used to be quite the pool shark and thought nothing against shooting in tournaments against big guys who clearly thought they could whip "the little lady." Finally, education is just so important. Like I tell my daughter and her friends: Get all the education you can and make the most of the education you get, because that will give you more choices in life. So, impersonate a guy in order to get a proper education? Hey, if that's what it takes...
Lauren grew up in Monroe, CT, where her father owned a drugstore at which her mother was the pharmacist. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where she majored in psychology. She also has what she calls her “half-Masters” in English from Western Connecticut State University (five courses down, another five to go…someday!). Throughout college, she worked semester breaks as a doughnut salesperson, a job that she swears gave her white lung disease from all the powdered sugar she breathed. Upon graduation, she began work at the venerable independent spacebookseller, now sadly defunct as such, Klein’s of Westport. There, she bought and sold for the better part of 11 years. In November 1994, Lauren left the bookstore to finally take a chance on herself as a writer. Success did not happen over night. Between 1994 and May 2002 – when Red Dress Ink called with an offer to buy THE THIN PINK LINE – Lauren worked as a book reviewer, a freelance editor and writer, and a window washer, making her arguably the only woman in the world who has ever both hosted a book signing party and washed the windows of the late best-selling novelist Robert Ludlum. Since Red Dress Ink’s call in 2002, Lauren has been kept very busy with writing more novels and checking her Amazon ranking on a daily basis. She still lives in Danbury, with her husband and daughter, where she has lived since 1991.For more info on Lauren, visit her site(s):
-Website
-MySpace
Books by Lauren:
Crazy Beautiful
Angel's Choice
Secrets of my Suburban Life
Vertigo
The Education of Bet
The Twin's Daughter (Coming out on August 31, 2010)
For more books go here: GoodReads
______________________________________________
The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-LogstedGenre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Pages: 192
Summary: When Will and Bet were four, tragic circumstances brought them to the same house, to be raised by a wealthy gentleman as brother and sister. Now sixteen, they’ve both enjoyed a privileged upbringing thus far. But not all is well in their household. Because she’s a girl, Bet’s world is contained within the walls of their grand home, her education limited to the rudiments of reading, writing, arithmetic, and sewing. Will’s world is much larger. He is allowed—forced, in his case—to go to school. Neither is happy. So Bet comes up with a plan and persuades Will to give it a try: They’ll switch places. She’ll go to school as Will. Will can live as he chooses. But once Bet gets to school, she soon realizes living as a boy is going to be much more difficult than she imagined.
Now Available in Bookstores!
______________________________________________
One Question Guest Post:
In your latest YA, The Education of Bet, the female protagonist Bet, decides to disguise herself as a boy in order experience education outside her home. As a female yourself, if you were in the same predicament would you take a chance like her? Or would you follow the norm and deal with the limited education provided?
LBL: If I were in Bet's shoes I'd like to think that I would absolutely go to extraordinary lengths to achieve a good education. I come from a long line of women who don't accept the idea of being confined to conventional boxes. My mother was a pharmacy major back in the '40s when that was a very unusual thing for a woman to be. For myself, while I haven't necessarily had to fight career battles having to do with gender, I did used to be quite the pool shark and thought nothing against shooting in tournaments against big guys who clearly thought they could whip "the little lady." Finally, education is just so important. Like I tell my daughter and her friends: Get all the education you can and make the most of the education you get, because that will give you more choices in life. So, impersonate a guy in order to get a proper education? Hey, if that's what it takes...
2 comments:
Haha, cute question! I don't even want to think about what my parents would do if I didn't get an education... have a heart attack most likely... Definitely can't wait for The Education of Bet! :)
Sounds like a fun book and great question! I would do just about anything for an education too!
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