Was this based on a book?

Little Darlings was made into a book, a "novelization" was written by Sonia Pilcer based on a 125-page script and stills of the movie, according to a June/July 1982 article in "Coda", a magazine for writers. I have a copy of the book, and the credits say Kimi Peck wrote the story (meaning the basic idea behind the movie), while the screenplay credits go jointly to Kimi and Dalene Young. The book credits also say that Armand Assante stars in the movie with Tatum and Kristy, although it doesn't mention Matt Dillon at all -- maybe he wasn't officially in the movie, or maybe he just wasn't a big enough name at the time, I don't know.

Here's where you can find the Coda article:

http://www.pw.org/mag/articles/a8206-3.htm

Sonia Pilcer wrote an earlier novel which came out in 1978 called "Teen Angel", a rather raunchy but realistic novel about young women coming of age in, if I recall correctly, New York City, growing up in a late 50s - mid 60s style urban girl gang, getting into fights, "coming of age", etc. She went on to write a few more baby boom books, most notably "The Holocaust Kid", about growing up as a "second-gen" of Holocaust survivors (which wasn't a theme of her earlier books, but which is part of her personal history). Her website follows:

http://www.holocaustkid.com/

I've followed the stories behind these and similar movies, by the way, in case you have any other questions, I'd really like to see more dialogue about this and similar movies.