This summary section includes Chapter 1: “Some Backstory,” Chapter 2: “Theories on Everything,” Chapter 3: “A Quick but Notable Conversation with Mom, a Week Ago,” Chapter 4: “This’ll Be Fast: “You Might as Well Meet Dad, Too,” Chapter 5: “Seventy-Seven Miles to Manhattan.”

13-year-old Nate Foster lives in the small town of Jankburg, Pennsylvania, with his parents (his mother being Sherrie Foster) and older brother Anthony. Anthony is a star athlete and the apple of his parents’ eyes. Nate, on the other hand, is short and plump and generally ignored:

Life hasn’t always been easy (my first word was “Mama,” and then “The other babies are teasing me”), but at least I’m singing my way through eighth grade, pretending my whole existence is underscored. There. There’s your backstory. I was always singing (2).

Nate dreams of making a name for himself on the stage. He and his best friend Libby have hatched a plan to get him to New York for an audition for E.T.: The Musical. Fortunately, Nate’s parents are away celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary, and Anthony is obsessed with an upcoming track meet. Nobody notices when Nate slips away to pursue his dream. As a parting gift, Libby hands him a large box of chocolate donuts to tide him over.