Five, Six, Seven, Nate!--"Everything is 'my my my' on Broadway, like a junior high cafeteria but with more glitter"

Title: Five, Six, Seven, Nate!

Author: Tim Federle


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Nate can't wait to leave the bullies of  Jankburg behind and move to New York for his Broadway debut!  Okay, so he's the second understudy for E.T., but a part is a part.  Nate becomes part of the cast of child stars with headshots and pushy stage mothers, video-game-creator-turned-director, constant script re-writes, and a secret crush on Jordan, the star of the show from Nate's hometown. Meanwhile, Libby remains Nate's best friend and biggest fan.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I was so thrilled so spend some more time with Nate; I already loved him before, and now I love him even more. I totally agree the venerable Lin-Manuel Miranda when he said it's "a wonderful evocation of what it’s like to be a theater kid."

Nate has a bit of adjustment period at first--it's hard to be thrown into a room full of performers and their egos. But through all the drama, Nate adorably perseveres.

I could not stop laughing at many rehearsal descriptions.  From the backstabbing, the egos, the gossip, the directors, the stage managers, the choreographers:  I have concluded that Broadway plays are pretty much like all other school and community theatre productions I have been in, so much so that I was dying to read chapters aloud to the cast of the play I'm in now.

There is nothing like theatre people, and this book TOTALLY gets it right.

Then, Nate gets his moment to shine, and although I'm not entirely sure it is something that would likely happen, it certainly is possible it could happen (after all, I have been cast in plays as understudies three times in which the actor had to drop out and I've gotten the parts).

Also, major cuteness overload alert towards the end of the book when Nate finds out his secret admirer is [spoiler deleted].  😍


This book is on the 2015 Rainbow Book List.


My final takeaway (in 75 words or fewer):  Read all of the Nate books, especially if you are a theatre person.  You will love all of the characters and won't be able to stop snort-laughing out loud, which will cause a lot of people to look at you funny, unless they're also theatre people, then they will get it.

Nate Expectations is finally out!  Here's a sneak peek at the first chapter.


Memorable quotes/passages from the book--there were about a billion, but here are some:

• "Everything is 'my my my' on Broadway. There's a lot of territory disputes, like a junior high cafeteria but with more glitter" (hardback edition, pg. 117--best QUOTE EVER).
• "Oh kid, it's boring stuff. Grown-up stuff. Small-claims-court, my-ex-husband-wants-custody-of-my-beloved-dog, not-over-my-dead-body stuff" (pg. 132).
• "You gave a star audition. A bizarre, freakish, star audition. And this is--I hate to speak in cliches, being British, but--your moment" (pg. 238).
• "Not for real because it didn't mean what this meant. It wasn't actual. It was like when you have Sweet'n Low instead of sugar. But then afterward it's bitter . . . It's not bitter now. It's weird and different and foreign and disorganized. It's incredible" (pg. 265).

Other reviews: Randomly Reading and HuffPost


This book is available in the Greensboro Public Library.