3 months ago
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NEW YORK (AP) — Francine Pascal, a onetime soap opera writer whose “Sweet Valley High” novels and the ongoing adventures of twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and other teens captivated millions of young readers, has died at age 92.
Pascal died Sunday, her publisher, Penguin Random House, said. It did not immediately have additional information Tuesday.
Starting in 1983, Francine Pascal oversaw the completion of more than 150 “Sweet Valley High” stories with the help of others. They were set in an imaginary Los Angeles suburb, one of “gently rolling hills” and a “fantastic white sand beach” nearby. In best sellers such as “Double Love,” “Power Play” and “All Night Long,” the Wakefield girls and their schoolmates navigate dating, family conflicts, sibling rivalries, more troubling themes such as race, divorce and mortality and even vampires and werewolves.
"Sweet Valley is the essence of high school," Pascal told People magazine in 1988. “It’s that moment before reality hits, when you really do believe in the romantic values — sacrifice, love, loyalty, friendship — before you get jaded and slip off into adulthood.”
Her books sold more than 200 million copies, and included “Sweet Valley” spinoffs and sequels. After the initial novels took off, Pascal brought in outside writers, providing them general outlines and a “bible” of the books' characters.
“It was mostly ve...
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