Thursday, July 08, 2010

The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Amazon.com:

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.

The Education of Bet is a sweet and humorous story told in a wonderful voice! I have read at least one historical novel where a woman dresses like a man to do something only a man can do and I absolutely adored it, so when I heard about The Education of Bet bringing this concept to the YA genre I was really excited!

And Bet didn't let me down. From page one I had a lot of fun reading about her adventures in school masquerading as a boy. The author crafted her voice in such a way that she is so proper even while doing scandalous boy type things, I loved it! And falling for her roommate that thinks she's a boy, priceless! Her relationship with James (her roommate) is so sweet, even when they are both boys, they really look out for each other. We don't see a ton of her relationship with her "brother in spirit" Will save for the beginning of the book but I really liked what I saw of Will as well.

I knew eventually Bet would have to be discovered by someone as a girl but I didn't know how and it was so fun getting there. The Education of Bet was a sweet and very cute book, which I definitely recommend!

The Education of Bet will be released on July 12th 2010
Genre: Historical Young Adult
4.5/5 Stars
ARC provided by Amazon Vine

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:10 AM

    This novel sounds really promising. I remember loving that movie in which Amanda Bynes was also dressing up as a boy (can't remember the title)

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  2. this sounds like it will make a good read for me

    The Blog

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  3. Emily- I totally thought about it when reading it too! She's the Man!

    Ayesha- I think we have really similar taste, i bet you would like it!

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  4. This does sound like a fun read!

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  5. I ADORED this book!! Bet was so incredibly hilarious and naive that I couldn't put it down. :)

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  6. Anonymous10:36 AM

    Glad you liked it! I'm excited to get my hands on it.

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  7. I have it and now I HAVE to read it soon!

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  8. I've heard so much about this book - I really want to read it now!

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  9. I always loved that girl switcheroo concept. It's been played out in a lot of movies and does well because I think every girl would love the freedom of what being a boy would be like. Hence why I think I love writing as a boy.

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  10. Haha...I love how everyone immediately thinks of She's the Man! So it's a historical twist on a modern movie...sounds good to me!! Great review!

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  11. I love books like this! It's always interesting, even if you know she'll be found out eventually.

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  12. I agree, this was a fun cute read. I had a few small qualms about it but nothing that would keep me from reading it. :)

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