New York native
francine pascal is an author best known for creating the sweet valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High was the backbone of the collection and became a popular television series. There were also several spin-offs, including the Unicorn Club, Sweet Valley University, and Sweet Valley Sorority.
francine rubin graduated from new york university in 1958. it was there that she met author and journalist john pascal and, in 1965, they were married (the second marriage for each). Francine often credited John as her writing mentor, and they collaborated on several projects, including writing scripts for the ABC soap opera The Young Pregnants, which ran from 1964 to 1966. John died of cancer in 1981, at 49 years.
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francine’s brother was prolific broadway playwright and librettist michael stewart, who wrote hit books for broadway musicals like bye bye birdie, hello, dolly! and 42nd street. Francine, Ella’s husband John, and Ella’s brother Michael worked together to write the book for the Broadway musical George M!, which ran at the Palace Theater from 1968 to 1970. A television version of George M! aired on nbc in 1970.
Michael Stewart died in 1987. Since then, Francine has revised her musical Mack & Mabel has also worked on revising another of her musicals, Carnival!, for the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Francine’s first young adult novel, published in 1977, was titled Hanging Out With Cici, in which her heroine, Victoria Martin, went back in time and met her mother as a teenager. It was televised as an ABC after-school special titled My Mother Was Never a Girl. She has written two other Victoria Martin books: My First Love and Other Disasters, and Love and Betrayal & hold the mayonnaise. Another of her early novels, The Hand-Me-Down Kid, also became an ABC after-school special.
Most recent works include the Caitlin series, a three-trilogy set that follows a teenage girl into adulthood, as well as a second mass-market project, the young adult fantasy spy series Fearless and its spin-off. -off, no fear: fbi. A TV series for Fearless was also planned, but for various reasons it never aired.
the ruling class, a teen novel about a cabal of spectacularly cruel girls who essentially run a high school in a wealthy dallas suburb, was described in a fantasy fiction review as “a magnetic tour de force created by a teacher narrator at the top of his form.”
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In addition to her work with mostly female teenagers, Francine has written a few adult fiction books, including The Villa (originally published as Wishes Were Horses) and Save Johanna!, as well as a book of nonfiction, the strange case of patty hearst, which she wrote with her husband john. (Although the villa was advertised as fiction, it has been suggested that it may have been based in part on actual experiences of the author and her late husband. Without further corroboration, however, this cannot be considered more than conjecture).
john and francine pascal lived in manhattan with francine’s three daughters from her first marriage: jamie, laurie, and susan. (John had a son from his first marriage, Matthew, who lived with his mother). After John’s death, Francine and her daughters remained in Manhattan, and Francine has been quoted as saying that much of the inspiration for her young adult novels came from growing up her three daughters. /p>
Sadly, in 2008, Francine’s eldest daughter, Jamie, died after a two-year battle with liver disease.
francine pascal now divides her time between homes in new york and the south of france. since john died, she has never remarried.
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