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“Linda Kass’s powerful new novel not only captures the intensity of what it was like to be a teenager during the dawn of the 1970s—living through earthquakes in the culture while grooving to some of history’s best rock and roll—but also compels the reader to reflect on how the anxieties of then compare to the turbocharged anxieties of now. A stirring, thought-provoking read!"​

–– Helen Schulman, author of Lucky Dogs and New York Times bestseller This Beautiful Life

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“It’s the tumultuous year of 1969, and high schooler Lena Rosen will have to face new challenges head-on.... Readers of a certain age will relate to this re-creation of a truly unforgettable and double-edged era. Kass even provides a soundtrack of sorts, as the kids listen and dance to songs that readers will certainly remember.... The music is only part of the rich pop culture assault, a barrage of nostalgia that hits its mark. Many of these Waverley High kids would be grandparents now, and it’s tempting to imagine how their grandchildren might be coping in this new millennium with its own heavy challenges. An earnest, meticulous reimagining of the late 1960s and the era’s tense atmosphere of social change.” 

—Kirkus Reviews 

“The characters in this bighearted novel set in a high school are trying to make sense of that

astounding, magnetic, musical, and tumultuous decade known as The Sixties. Linda Kass orchestrates the telling of it all with eloquence and true tenderness.”

– Wil Haygood, author of The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home and Tigerland: 1968–1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and A Magical Season of Healing 

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“Linda Kass masterfully transports us back in time while keeping us tethered to the fears, hopes, and quiet conquests known to young lives of every generation. This is a beautifully nuanced tale of what connects us throughout the ages.”

–– Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of New York Times bestseller The Daughters of Erietown

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“Remember what it was like when you were a teenager and your whole life, thrilling and frightening, was opening ahead of you? World News from Waverley High, with its fast-paced storyline and its nuanced treatment of time and place, will remind you. With a clear eye and sensitivity to all that presses down on her characters, Linda Kass has written a novel that resonates with the here and now.”

—Lee Martin, author of The Evening Shades and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Bright Forever 

“The times they are a-changin’. Linda Kass’s fourth novel is set during the 1969–’70 school year—when tensions are running high over race relations, the war in Vietnam, drugs, and even rock ’n’ roll. This glimpse inside Waverley High provides a wonderful time capsule of these turbulent times, and Kass’s focus on the music of the day provides a pitch-perfect soundtrack for this look back at a pivotal time in our nation’s history.”

–– Laney Katz Becker, author of In the Family Way​

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"...while readers familiar with the period will likely find value in the nostalgic look back, teenagers and young adults will also find much to savor in the book’s discussion of family dynamics, sibling relationships, first love, and morality."

––Eleanor J. Bader, The Turned Page

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“A heartwarming and thought-provoking glimpse of the life, music and friendships of a promising teen reporter. Following Lena as she navigates and chronicles a world torn by racism, war, and unexpected tragedy offers a stark reminder that there is a common thread running through our society’s challenges, a thread that stretches far into our past.”

–– Ben Heckman, Library Director, Bexley Public Library
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"A masterful, riveting, and poignant coming-of-age novel narrated by a precocious teen whose high school years unfold amid the sweeping upheavals of the late ’60s and early ’70s, brilliantly capturing a generation’s transformation and resonating with young adults and adults alike."

–– Mike Nolan, Bexley High School Librarian

“Linda Kass takes readers on a journey through a turbulent year at Waverley High. Told through the perspective of a high school student, this novel is filled with the sights, sounds, and cataclysmic historical events of 1969–1970. Turning the pages takes you back to a time you may remember—or a time that needs to be remembered in vivid detail. Meet these characters and enter a period that changed American history forever.”

–– Pamela Klinger-Horn, event coordinator at Valley Bookseller and creator and host of Literature Lover’s Night Out