Waiting on Wednesday: Nate Expectations by Tim Federle

Nate Expectations by Tim Federle. 192 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, September 18, 2018. 9781481404129.

Publisher synopsis: Third time’s a charm! Nate Foster returns home to Jankburg, Pennsylvania, to face his biggest challenge yet—high school—in this final novel in the Lambda Literary Award–winning Nate trilogy, which The New York Times calls “inspired and inspiring.”

When the news hits that E.T.: The Musical wasn’t nominated for a single Tony Award—not one!—the show closes, leaving Nate both out of luck and out of a job. And while Nate’s cast mates are eager to move on (the boy he understudies already landed a role on a TV show!), Nate knows it’s back to square one, also known as Jankburg, Pennsylvania. Where horror (read: high school) awaits.

Desperate to turn his life from flop to fabulous, Nate takes on a huge freshman English project with his BFF, Libby: he’s going to make a musical out of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. (What could possibly go…right?) But when Nate’s New York crush ghosts him, and his grades start to slip, he finds the only thing harder than being on Broadway is being a freshman — especially when you’ve got a secret you’re desperate to sing out about.

This magical conclusion to Tim Federle’s beloved Nate series is a love letter to theater kids young and not-so-young—and for anyone who ever wondered if they could truly go home again. Especially when doing so means facing everything you thought you’d left behind.

It is no secret that I absolutely adore Tim and his books. He does it all - picture books, YA, middle grade, drinks recipes with a literary twist and life advice. I enjoyed Tuck Everlasting and was so sad that it closed so quickly because I was looking forward to seeing it again. I found out about this new Nate book from Tim's FB page, where he posted a link to this article a few weeks ago. There are lots of reasons why I'm sad that I decided to pass on going to Midwinter this year and this is yet another reason if S&S will be giving out arcs.

I do have to say that while I love the new cover design, I also loved the covers of the first two and as someone who has first edition copies of both books in both school and personal libraries, I am a tad sad.