'Sweet Valley High like Facebook,' says writer

The creator of Sweet Valley High Francine Pascal has said that fans' ongoing fascination with the characters is like finding old friends on Facebook.

Launched in 1983, the Sweet Valley High franchise followed twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield in Sweet Valley, California, and spawned 152 books and several spinoff series, as well as a TV adaptation that ran between 1994 and 1997.

Last month, Pascal released a new instalment of the series Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later, while Juno's Oscar-winning scriptwriter Diablo Cody is penning a film adaptation of the series.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Pascal said that the ongoing fascination with the characters in the book mirrors the social media environment.

"[Fans] are very excited about it," she explained. "I think it's kind of the Facebook phenomenon in a sense - you want to find out what those people you went to high school with are up to.

"That's exactly what this is, because you went to high school with these people. Though I hope it's more interesting than most people you went to high school with, of course!"

She added: "There are those millions of girls who grew up with this, but it's gone viral. I love Sweet Valley, but I love it from a different angle. There are people for whom it is their adolescence. They own it, in a way that even I don't."

Recently, it was revealed that the fourth instalment of the high school-spawned American Pie franchise will revolve around a ten-year reunion organised via Facebook.