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Her fan mail is how she connects to her readers -- no matter their age. “I write everyone back as long as they need me to,” she said, adding she has kept up correspondence with some readers for years. She gets fan mail nearly every day.
Since 2003, Baratz-Logsted — who grew up in Monroe — has published books for adults, teens and children, including the nine-book series “The Sisters Eight” for young children. She wrote the series with her husband, Greg Logsted, and daughter, Jackie, who is now 17.
Over the years, she has received many letters and emails that affected her deeply.
“Many of the kids who write me confide they are in a bad place in their life — sometimes they have been struggling with reading, other times, they are being bullied," she said.
“Several months ago, I got an email from a little girl who talked about ‘The Sisters Eight.’ ... It opened in the usual way with the little girl telling me how old she is and about her guinea pigs," Baratz-Logsted said.
But then the letter took on a somber note. “She wrote that nine months earlier, her brother died. She went onto write how much joy ‘The Sisters Eight' has given her.
“I have since exchanged several emails and letters with both this young girl and her mother and I also sent the girl a copy of a book I have coming out next June. I told her that outside of my own daughter, she is the first person who will be reading the book. I wanted her to feel special.”
The "Sisters Eight" series — a mystery/fantasy about octuplets whose parents disappear — have sold 250,000 copies. In total, all of Baratz-Logsted’s books sold nearly 600,000 copies.
Baratz-Logsted said she just wants to make a difference in her readers’ lives.
“I am not a household name and I doubt I will ever be one, but as long as there are readers out there who can be touched and heartened by my words, than I will always be a success,” she said.
Of all her readers, she said she finds writing for young children to be special. “Little kids are not jaded yet. Ideas you introduce them to can be exciting for them in ways that they can’t for adults,” Baratz-Logsted said. “It’s great to show them new ways of seeing the world.”
This winter, the first two books in her “Adventures of Sherlock Bones” series for young adults will be published.
The books “are your classic Sherlock Holmes stories, but in my world, the great detective is a Great Dane, the narrator is Dr. Jane Catson who served in the cat wars and the housekeeper is a turtle with a jet pack.”
Baratz-Logsted’s own cat Yo Yo is the inspiration for Dr. Jane Catson in the series.
For more information on Lauren Baratz-Logsted, click here.
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