Francine Pascal

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Francine Pascal (born New York, May 13, 1938) is an American author known for creating the Sweet Valley series of novels. Her Sweet Valley High series was made into a television series. Although most of her books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they are still read all over the world.

Her first young adult novel, published in 1977, was called Hangin' out with Cici, in which her heroine Victoria Martin went back in time and met her mother as a teenager. It was televised as My Mother Was Never a Kid. She has written two other Victoria Martin books, My First Love and Other Disasters, and Love & Betrayal & Hold the Mayo.

Her other notable books include Caitlin, a set of three trilogies which follows a teenage girl into adulthood, and the fantasy spy series Fearless and Fearless: FBI. The Ruling Class (2004) concerning a clique of spectacularly cruel girls who run a high school has been described as "a magnetic tour de force created by a master storyteller at the top of her form."^[1]

In addition to her work for teenagers, Pascal has written the adult fiction books La Villa (originally titled If Wishes Were Horses) and Save Johanna!, as well as a non-fiction book, The Case of Patty Hearst.

Pascal also wrote the book to the Broadway musical George M! with her husband John Pascal and brother Michael Stewart. She revised the musical Mack and Mabel, and worked on revising the musical Carnival! for the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Pascal says her writing is inspired by her own memories of growing up and by the experiences of her three daughters.

Francine Pascal lives in New York and the south of France. She graduated from New York University and married the journalist, John Pascal, who died in 1981.