Francine Pascal Dies: ‘Sweet Valley High’ Book Series Creator Was 92
deadline.comFrancine Pascal, the author whose “Sweet Valley High” series of young-adult novels became a cultural touchstone for generations of middle- and high-school readers beginning in the 1980s, died Sunday at Manhattan’s at New York-Presbyterian Hospital of lymphoma.
She was 92. Her death was announced by daughter Laurie Wenk-Pascal to The New York Times. The first book in the series, Double Love, was published in 1983, an attempt, Pascal would say, to fill the void in young adult literature for a Dallas-style soap opera entertainment.
Set primarily at a fictional high school in a fictional Los Angeles suburb, the book series initially focused on twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield.
As the series grew (eventually to include hundreds of sequels) The Wakefields would age from middle-school to college, their adventures encompassing reality-based teen drama and comedy as well as more fantastical doings akin to Nancy Drew and even the Scooby-Doo gang.
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