To celebrate the release of The Education of Bet in paperback form, Lauren Baratz-Logsted is back at WORD again to answer a few more (rather fun) questions!
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.
Click read more to check them out. Hint: One question involves a zombie George Washington.
Nicole: Welcome back to WORD, Lauren! What was your favorite part of writing The Education of Bet?
Lauren Baratz-Logsted: I've discovered in recent years that even though all of my books have female protagonists - with the exception of Crazy Beautiful, which is a he-said/she-said story - I love writing guys. So I really enjoyed writing James and Will, and of course all of the second-tier characters at the all-boys school Bet impersonates her way into.
N: How do you catalog your home library?
LBL: It's possible to catalog my books? Gack! Mostly, they're just in stacks all over the place! I do have one large room in my basement with lots of bookshelves where I used to have things shelved: first editions, arranged alphabetically; followed by ARCs, arranged alphabetically; followed by general books, arranged alphabetically. But the system has mostly broken down in recent years. Really, I just basically have books in every room including the two bathrooms.
N: If you could have brunch with any author, dead or alive, who would it be and where would you eat?
LBL: Shakespeare. We'd eat at a pub and later, I'd try to prevent Kit Marlowe from getting killed.
N: Oh, if I could have dinner with Shakespeare... What would you do if a Zombie George Washington was chasing you?
LBL: Freeze in the position of "Washington Crossing the Delaware," hoping he'd take me as a statue of the famous painting and just run by me. Or I guess I mean lumber by me. That's what zombies do, right, they lumber?
N: Or slowly disintegrate. What's your favorite kind of tree?
LBL: The Money Tree! *sigh* Wouldn't it be great if there really were a money tree?