SECRETS OF A REBEL ROCK STAR

An Australian 11-year-old is afraid it will break his mum’s heart if she learns he loves Broadway more than rock.

Mac Fleetwood Cooper and his brother, Stevie Nick Cooper, have a mother who’s a tiny bit into rock music. With his mum bent on living out her own frustrated Gwen Stefani rocker dreams through her sons, Mac knows she’ll never approve of his fascination with Broadway musicals. So the Secret Society of Broadway Musical Appreciation is like a dream come true. Mac becomes instant best friends with the SSOBMA pianist and composer, Flynn. Flynn, who’s a year older than Mac, has Tourette syndrome, a willingness to answer questions about it, and an extremely sunny disposition. This positivity comes in handy when the kids learn their school is canceling the arts program and SSOBMA plans a fundraising musical to save the arts. If only Mac can take part without his mother’s finding out. Flynn goes out of his way to explicitly debunk myths about Tourette, but his constant complex vocal tics still play into some overused Tourette tropes. Plotlines from earlier books in the series appear in the tidy conclusion without having had any real presence or explanation in this third series outing that nevertheless stands on its own. Characters are minimally described, but names cue some ethnic diversity in the cast.

Full of Broadway numbers and ’90s rock; a fun musical adventure with well-meaning disability representation.