Federle mines the best bits for humor, adds a dash of secret-admirer mystery, and gives Nate sufficient material to grow with each challenge. Readers will be with him through every set back, and cheering his every triumph. There are still cliques, there are still bullies, sometimes adults have no idea what they are doing, sometimes friendships are confusing and people aren’t what they seem, and sometimes we have to face the limitations of our own capabilities. But it’s not all that he expected it to be. Nate is thrilled to have landed in his dream world, an actual member of the cast of a Broadway musical, surrounded by fellow theater-loving kids - boys even! - and understudying the role of E.T.
Nate has left best friend Libby behind in Pennsylvania, caring for her ill mother and navigating seventh grade without her sidekick Nate (though Skype and texts keep Libby and Nate in contact, even as their relationship is tested by their mutual growth and changes).
Federle especially handles well the subtle layers in Nate’s relationship with his mother, who the reader can sense is proud of her son and wants to show her support, but whose expression of that love and support is complicated by his father’s not-so-subtle rejections. Federle allows the reader to experience Nate’s disappointment with his family’s lack of support with sufficient sadness to build empathy, but deftly shows that Nate’s growing acceptance of himself (and of them) will allow him to survive. Nate’s immediate family is even more removed and off-stage in this sequel, but Nate’s growing understanding and acceptance of their lack of support is more clearly and directly on the page. Federle continues to explore core middle grade themes of friendship, bullying, peer pressure, familial expectations, and growing self-awareness, against the backdrop of the theater world and with the same musical-comedy inspired feel as the first book. Now Broadway-bound, Five, Six, Seven, Nate! picks up roughly where the first book left off, with Nate arriving in New York City as part of the cast of the new Broadway musical inspired by the movie E.T. In a pitch perfect follow up to last year’s Better Nate Than Ever (my review here), Tim Federle continues 13-year-old aspiring-actor Nate Foster’s pursuit of his musical comedy dreams in Five, Six, Seven, Nate! (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, January 2014).
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