Better Nate Than Ever
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- £5.49
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
Billy Elliot meets Glee! in this award-winning book about a small-town boy with big ambitions. Thirteen-year-old Nate Foster has always wanted to star in a Broadway show. (In fact, he’d settle for seeing a Broadway show.) With best pal Libby’s help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. There’s an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom. Tim Federle's hilarious and touching debut is full of broken curfews, second chances and the adventure of growing up – because sometimes you have to get four hundred miles from your back garden to finally feel at home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Federle's hilarious and heartwarming debut novel follows 13-year-old musical theater loving Nate Foster on his meticulously choreographed overnight getaway to New York City to audition for E.T.: The Musical. Catchy chapter titles framed in marquee lights ("This'll Be Fast: You Might as Well Meet Dad, Too") and running gags, like Nate's use of Broadway flops as epithets ("Moose Murders it all to tarnation!"), add to the theatrical atmosphere as Nate breathlessly narrates his backstory and real-time adventures. Federle (who has himself worked on Broadway) combines high-stakes drama with slapstick comedy as Nate travels by Greyhound bus dying cellphone and dollars in hand determined to get to the audition, conceal his lack of chaperone, and compete in the cutthroat world of child actors and stage parents. Nate's desperation to escape his stifling home environment, instant love affair with the city, questions about his sexuality, and relationship with his dysfunctional but sympathetic family add emotional depth. Federle's supporting characters affirm theater's "no small roles" adage, and E.T. references abound like Elliott's bicycle in the film, this book soars. Ages 9 13.
