In musicals, characters break into song when their emotions get to be too big. The companion novel to Better Nate Than Ever, which The New York Times called “inspired and inspiring,” Five, Six, Seven, Nate! is full of secret admirers, surprise reunions, and twice the drama of middle school.with a lot more glitter. Now, as the countdown to opening night is starting to feel more like a time bomb, Nate is going to need more than his lucky rabbit’s foot if he ever wants to see his name in lights. It’s everything he ever practiced his autograph for! But as thrilling as Broadway is, rehearsals are nothing like Nate expects: full of intimidating child stars, cut-throat understudies, and a director who can’t even remember Nate’s name.

Highly recommended.” -Lin-Manuel Miranda, star and creator of the musical, HamiltonĮncore! Nate Foster’s Broadway dreams are finally coming true in this sequel to Better Nate Than Ever that Publishers Weekly calls a “funny, tender coming-of-age story.”Īrmed with a one-way ticket to New York City, small-town theater geek Nate is off to start rehearsals for E.T.: The Broadway Musical. Nate’s encore-an extravagant companion to Telgemeier’s Drama (BCCB 10/12)-will certainly be applauded by his loyal fan base.“The Nate series by Tim Federle is a wonderful evocation of what it’s like to be a theater kid. A surprise first (well, second) kiss, substantively described (like “an ice cube doused in diesel”), gives way to a very tween romance (“i like u or whatever too”) with the boy he’d formerly envied, providing additional spirit to the tale. While this lacks the relational depth Nate gained with his family and Heidi’s roommate Freckles in the first volume, it instead provides a plot-driven, exaggerated exposé behind the scenes of a Broadway show that’s sure to entertain, and it continues to use Nate’s naïveté and the zany characters of the theater for laugh-out-loud levity. When the actor playing Elliott suddenly loses his voice, Asella suggests Nate as a replacement and he suddenly finds himself thrust into the limelight as the star of the show. Facing the disdain of the polished kids from performing arts schools, Nate instead befriends Asella, the adult who’s first understudy for E.T.

Now Nate is on his way to live with his aunt Heidi in New York as understudy (well, second understudy) to the titular alien in E.T.: The Musical. When readers last saw Nate Foster, the Broadway-obsessed, small-town thirteen-year-old protagonist of Better Nate than Ever (BCCB 2/13), he’d just answered a phone call from a casting director with bated breath.

Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle