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Summary
Summary
Nate Foster has come a long way from Jankburg, Pennsylvania. His stellar audition landed him the role of second understudy for E.T. in E.T.: The Musical, and he's living the dream. But all is not perfect in Broadway paradise. Nate isn't as Broadway-trained as the other kids in the ensemble, and it shows. And his nemesis, Jordan Rylance - playing the starring role of Eliott - is doing his best to make Nate's life as hard as possible. With his dreams on the line, can Nate pull it together before he's sent home?
Author Notes
Tim Federle is the showrunner and executive producer of High School Musical: the Musical: the Series , which he created for Disney+. His novels include the New York Times Notable Book Better Nate Than Ever and its Lambda Literature Award-winning sequel--which Lin-Manuel Miranda called "a wonderful evocation of what it's like to be a theater kid" ( New York Times ). A film adaptation of Nate , written and directed by Federle, will premiere on Disney+ in spring 2022. The film stars Aria Brooks, Joshua Bassett, Lisa Kudrow, and Rueby Wood as Nate. Tim's hit series of cocktail recipe books, including Tequila Mockingbird , have sold over half a million copies worldwide. He cowrote the Broadway musical adaptation of Tuck Everlasting and won the Humanitas Prize for cowriting the Golden Globe and Academy Award-nominated Best Animated Feature Ferdinand , starring John Cena and Kate McKinnon. A former Broadway dancer, Tim was born in San Francisco, grew up in Pittsburgh, and now divides his time between Los Angeles and the internet.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This sequel to Better Nate Than Ever finds the young and slightly overweight Nate as the second understudy to Elliot in the Broadway production of E.T.: The Musical. Surrounded by oversized egos and a condescending crew, Nate feels far from home, even though this is supposed to be his dream. He is now the small fish in the pond and feels it with every mistake he makes. Narrator Federle brings a fantastic voice to the young and theatrically inclined protagonist, capturing Nate's mixture of uncertainty, outrageousness, and attitude without missing a beat. Moreover, his colorful character voices provide a rich and often comical range of personality throughout the story. Ages 10-14. A Simon & Schuster hardcover. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Nate successfully auditioned for Broadway's E.T.: The Musical in Better Nate Than Ever. Of course, he's actually only an understudy's understudy, his chorus part keeps diminishing, and rehearsals are going poorly, but good-humored Nate takes it all in stride. Federle addresses his likable character's burgeoning interest in boys in a laudably straightforward way, making this entertaining backstage pass especially rewarding. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
In his Better Nate Than Ever (2013) premiere, eighth-grader Nate Foster beat the odds to land a small part in ET: The Musical. Now, act 2 of his adventures begins as he prepares to leave Nowheresville, PA, behind for Broadway. As an understudy without much experience outside of his own dreams, Nate is self-conscious and insecure about life on the Great White Way, especially since the star of the show is one of the richest, most talented, and best looking guys from his same small town. But he's also determined, and with the support of his best friend, who is just a text message away, and his aunt, who is the only one in his family who understands him, Nate presses on through the comedy, drama, and romance of five weeks of rehearsals right to the tragedy and triumph of opening night. Readers will cheer Nate along while also relating to him because, as Nate sagely observes, Broadway is just like a junior high school cafeteria but with more glitter. --Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-Thirteen-year-old Nate Foster, the unlikely but very likable misfit star of Better Nate Than Ever, has made it to Broadway! Sure, he's second understudy for the title role in E. T.: The Musical, but his lack of stature in the cast cannot diminish his enthusiasm for just being there. Stalwart best friend and acting coach, Libby, is back home in Jankburg, PA, offering Nate support and advice via text and Skype, while Nate is staying in a tiny New York apartment with his Aunt Heidi, a struggling actress. Challenged by intimidating stars, a clueless director, and insecurities about his blossoming manhood, Nate perseveres, ultimately and unwittingly saving the day. Once again, author and Broadway performer Federle reads with flamboyant energy, but he varies his voicings so little, it is often difficult to discern which character is speaking. The story approaches head-on mature issues such as sexuality, bullying, and terminal illness with humor and tenderness. Nate's acute self-awareness sometimes rings untrue for a teenage boy, but ultimately makes him all the more endearing. Listeners will cheer Nate on as he stumbles into stardom on the Great White Way.-Jennifer Verbrugge, State Library Services, Roseville, MN (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Goodbye, Jankburghello, Broadway! Thirteen-year-old Nate Foster is back (Better Nate Than Ever, 2013) in all his hilarious, vulnerable and heartwarming glory and headed "home" to the Great White Way. Cast as Alien Number Seven and the understudy to E.T.'s understudy in the hotly anticipated E.T.: The Musical, Nate is prepared to do whatever it takes to make his dreams come true--even if it means a lot more cardio than he'd ever imagined. Nate navigates the rocky terrain of pushy child stars, stage momzillas and secret admirers with a wit and charm well beyond his years. Readers of the first book will be delighted at the continuation of Nate's practice of substituting names of Broadway flops as swearwords, which he kindly explains for the uninitiated. While humor is clearly one of Federle's strengths, what sets this novel apart is how beautifully he explores Nate's vulnerabilities, particularly with regard to his sexuality, his family and his own self-esteem. Lines such as, "I never sit when I'm on the phone with Dad, because it's the only time I get to practice what it feels like to stand up to him," speak volumes about Nate and will surely resonate with any reader who has ever felt out of place in his own homeor in his own skin. Nate will sing and dance his way right into readers' hearts. This is an encore performance that will leave them standing in the aisles. (Fiction. 9-14)]]]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Five, Six, Seven, Nate! The Fun'll Come Out, Tomorrow In musicals, characters break into song when their emotions get to be too big. Whereas in life, of course, I break into song when my emotions get to be too big. Without getting paid for it, I mean. "Nate, will you two keep it down up there? It's almost midnight." That's my dad, who has apparently forgotten how exciting my future is about to become. And that people sing and dance in their (incredibly small and poorly decorated) bedrooms when they're excited. Loudly. "Sorry, Dad!" I shout. But I do this thing where I mouth "I'm not" right before. Gets my best friend laughing, every single time. "I ought to pack for tomorrow," I say to Libby between huffs and puffs. We have a long-standing Sunday tradition where we belt the entire score of Godspell until either the neighbors call the cops or I lose my voice. It's our version of church. "I guess I'll need socks? I should pack socks." But this Sunday is different. "Refocus, Nate," Libby says, dragging me to my own desk. "I've gotta get home soon. And we have your first Playbill bio to write." Cue: hopping, hollering, Dad cranking up "the game" downstairs. Libby retrieves a stack of beat-up theater programs from her bookbag. "Let's study bios." She has a step-uncle in New York who sends her his Playbills. Can you imagine the luck? This is probably how most normal boys feel when they rip open a pack of baseball cards, suffer through that stick of "gum," and then . . . I dunno. What do boys do with baseball cards? Fan themselves in the stadium heat? "Flip to the ensemble bios," I say. "We can bypass the stars." We scan the little biographies that actors write about themselves, trying to settle on relevant information I might use to craft my own for E.T.: The Musical. "What the heck am I even going to write? I'm allowed fifty whole words to describe a life spent hiding from bullies in bathroom stalls." "That's a good thing," Libby says, chewing on her lip like she's still hungry. Which you'd know is impossible, if you'd seen the way Libby ate even the crusts on our pizza tonight. "Fifty words," she continues, grabbing a pencil sharpener from my Zorba mug, "means we get to use a ton of adjectives to tell the world where you got your training." I see where she's going with this. Libby is, among other things, one of the great acting coaches of our time. She's also the only one I know--but come on, I'm not even old enough to drive and I'm going to be on Broadway. Wowza. Even thinking about it again-- "Nate, you're shaking." --makes me shake. "I'm just so . . . excited!" Did you know that "excited" is Latin for "actually-kind-of-nervous-but-in-the-greatest-way-possible"? "Well I, for one, am jealous," Libby says, re-piggying a pigtail. "Not only are you making your Broadway debut--" (Squealing, jumping, possibly a bedside lamp being broken.) "--but you also get to do your homework online. Not that you participate in class, anyway." I take this as a compliment. Knock knock knock, and I practically pee my pants. "Nathan." You know when you didn't even know you had to pee until your dad pounds on your door with the kind of strength that's usually reserved for killing a burglar? "Your mother and you are leaving early," he says from the hallway, and then lopes away. That's all he has to say. Everything is implied with Dad. . . . so tell that girl to go home is implied, as is . . . and stop squealing, because boys don't squeal. "You do know you look like him," Libby says, "when you make that face--right?" ( . . . and don't come back home until you've made us some money. That's also implied. Though I'm not sure I ever want to come back. Not unless they name a local street after me. Nate Foster Way. Heck: Nate Foster Freeway.) "How about this," Libby says, slipping on a purple Converse. Oh God, she really is leaving me soon. "How about you just make it ultracool. The bio? Like, don't even list your junior high theater credits. Just thank people. Important people who have shaped your career. Like . . . peer mentors. Or whatever." I grin. "Like . . . best friends?" "Forever," she says, fast. She kind of wrinkles her nose the way you might see in a cartoon sneeze, fending back unexpected tears. But this is no cartoon. And I'd know, because I've been chased to the edges of cliffs several times after school. "Who am I going to watch cartoons with in New York?" "We're almost in high school, Nate," she says, switching tones. "We've got to pull it together and quit it with the cartoon business. I've been humoring you, but. Come on." Brilliant move. Nothing averts sobs like insulting somebody. "Well . . . I should clean out my closet, then, I guess." Which is technically true but probably won't happen until the very last minute, once my alarm goes off. There's too much to do tonight: get a rough draft of my bio down; brush my dog, Feather, one last time; vomit myself to sleep. While thanking the universe in between heaves. "Yeah," Libby says, opening her bookbag and heading for my bedroom door. "And I should get home. My mom'll worry that I'm here so late." "Oh?" "Yeah," she says, smirking. "What if you put the moves on me or something?" I'm about as dangerous to a girl as a tube of mascara, but maybe that's the joke. "Your bookbag's open," I say. "Good eye." "Are you giving me a going-away present?" Libby never lets me go on a journey without supplying all the basics that any idiot would remember to bring. Like donuts, primarily. "No, Nate. I was sort of hoping you'd have something to give me." I scrunch my face. "Something tangible with a hint of your essence, Nate. Like . . . a piece of clothing. Or an old Indian-head nickel. Or something." I laugh. "When did you get so, like, Eastern medicine?" Miss Saigon is one of my favorite shows, so I actually know quite a bit about the Far East. "Since none of my mom's chemo treatments took hold," Libby says, skin turning a shade of white that could rival unused towels, "and she started looking into alternative therapies. Is when." Sting. "Oh. I'm sorry. Wow." "Yeah. I didn't . . . I haven't had the heart to, like, bring the mood down. Since you've been talking nonstop about E.T. for two months." "Oh God, Libster. I'm really--" "Not that I wouldn't. If I were--you know--you." God, I am such an awful person. An awful friend. And selfish. I look myself over. And fat. "You are not fat," Libby says, reading my mind and dropping her bookbag. "So just stop it. They hired you as you are, Natey. Show up the way they hired you." She swigs from a two-liter of Mountain Dew that I hadn't even realized was in her coat. "You think Meryl Streep would lose weight just to please some costume designer?" I think Meryl Streep would kill herself if the person she were playing was dead. But I get Libby's point. "Thank you." "You're welcome." "For comparing me to Meryl Streep, I mean." "Implied." And at the mere mention of her name, we both burst into Oscar-worthy tears. And sort of fall into each other. This is it. Good-bye, Jankburg. Hello . . . everything. I hear Dad trudge up the stairs again, but I hold Libby tighter. And before he can knock knock knock, I have the guts, boiling beneath seven slices of pizza and a lava of molten Coke, to shout at the top of my everything: "Leave us alone, Dad. This is a pivotal moment." Libby pulls away, her tears stopped quick like a clamped hose, and sniffs back a goob of snot. "Wow," she says. "Where'd that come from?" "Here," I say, putting her hand on my rumbling stomach. "Nah," she says, wiping a crystal tear from her pudgy porcelain face and placing her hand on my heart. "Here." From outside my room, my father's feet squeak in the carpet as he turns in his thousand-year-old slippers, stomping away to take it all out on my mom. And I know exactly what to give Libby as a going-away present. "What was that for?" she says. "I don't know. I've never . . . had one." "Well, you could at least have opened your mouth a little," she says, holding her lips like they're a wounded butterfly. We both hiccup at the same time. "If I'd known that was coming, I'd have skipped the last piece of pizza," she says, letting her lips go like they might fly away. We both can't believe I did that. Kissed someone. Finally. "I'm . . . I'm going to leave on that note," she says for maybe the millionth time. "Your mom is gonna be pulling the Grand Caravan into the front yard in about five seconds." But Libby's wrong. I've got longer than five seconds till the next chapter of my life starts--the first one worth singing about. "Yeah." Heck, I've got five hours till my alarm goes off. Maybe I'll even sneak Feather into bed, where he's not allowed for all the obvious mom reasons. Five hours' sleep is five more than Libby and I got on New Year's, and that was only a couple nights ago. Look at us now! Barely yawning. "I feel like I'm going to fall over," Libby says, her eyes fluttering--like the butterfly forgot which body part it was playing. "Let's sit on my bed," I say, "and listen to our favorite song." And never say good-bye. "And I'll see you on Skype tomorrow night, from Queens." Assuming my aunt has high-speed Internet. She must. She's under forty. "You have the headphone splitter?" I say. "Was Sweet Smell of Success robbed of a choreography nomination?" Libby pulls out her iPod, but we're practically asleep by the time the song even starts. And maybe it's my murky brain fluid talking, but I get the perfect idea for a going-away gift. "Gimme your bookbag," I murmur, and Libby does, not even opening her eyes. I drop it in--the green rabbit foot that hangs by my bed. Libby gave it to me as good luck, forever-and-a-half ago. And carrying it to the audition, that fateful New York day--with that flipping green bunny foot scratching a green bunny nail into my pale Natey thigh--look where all that luck landed me. My heart speeds up again. This is actually happening. Tomorrow night at this time I'll be avoiding muggers in Times Square. "There's a surprise in there for you," I say, zipping up Libby's bookbag. "Good," she says, pulling the earphone from my head, "I was hoping you'd settle on the rabbit foot." "You peeked?" "Nah," she says. "Didn't have to." I guess we both know that the kid with the sick mom could use the rabbit foot more than the kid who's escaping junior high torture. A light pokes through the slats of my blinds. I sit up straight. "It's not a burglar, Nate," Libby says, yawning so hard I can hear pepperoni digesting. "The sun's just coming out." " 'Betcher bottom dollar,' " I say. God, I wish there were a boy role in Annie. "Careful, Nate," Libby says, turning a pillow over to find the cool side. "First you kiss me, then you talk about my bottom. People will say we're in love." "There'd be worse things." (There'd be worse things than being born a boy who chases girls, believe you me.) "Broadway's gonna be a piece of cake after middle school," Libby whispers. "You just have to carry our three rules around with you like a loaded water gun." "You bet." "One?" Libby says. She's the only thirteen-year-old who gives pop quizzes. "We text each other so often that our phones break." "Right. Two?" "Sing as loud as possible, as often as possible, in as many rehearsals as possible." "--in order to get more solos. And possibly replace the lead. That's right. And three?" "I steer clear of Jordan Rylance--speaking of leads--at all costs." "The little Via Galactica." "Watch your mouth," I say, chuckling at our always hilarious routine: substituting Broadway show flops for swearwords. (Via Galactica played for, like, four days in 1972, at the Uris Theater. It is only a quasi-flop because it's the same theater where Wicked plays, now. So it's automatically sacred, in a way.) "I'm telling you, Nate, avoid Jordan Rylance. Pretend from day one that he's contagious with something." Libby knows Jordan--the (luckiest) kid (ever) cast as Elliott in E.T.--from before, when she used to go to the fancy performing arts school with him across town. Before her mom got sick. Before Libby had to move to Jankburg, and meet me, and reroute my drifting destiny like a gust of glittery wind. "What are the odds of two boys from the same hometown getting cast in the same Broadway production?" I say, and I really wonder it. I wonder it deep into my mattress, which I feel like I'm falling into, now. "What are the odds we'll even fall asleep tonight?" Libby says, or I think she does. We're too busy falling asleep. One last time. Legs intertwined. Wicked on repeat. Bags not packed. Before the second adventure of my only lifetime starts--with no lucky rabbit foot in sight. Excerpted from Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.