You don't have to know and enjoy the legend of King Arthur to fully appreciate AVALON HIGH, but it probably helps. Meg Cabot has taken the legend of Arthur and the main people in his life--Merlin, the magician and guardian of young Arthur; the Lady of the Lake, who gave Arthur his magical sword, Excalibur; Guinevere, Arthur's wife and Queen; his most esteemed knight, Sir Lancelot; Mordred, Arthur's half-brother; and the elusive Elaine of Astolat, the Lady of Shalott--and found them modern-day counterparts within the halls of Avalon High School just outside of Washington, D.C.
Ellie Harrison isn't thrilled with leaving St. Paul, Minnesota, and moving to a new state, and starting a new school, while her parents are on sabbatical. Both her mom and dad are medievalists and professors, and her father has dragged the family closer to D.C., where he can study up close and personal the sword he's researching.
And then Ellie meets Will, the most interesting and good-looking boy she's ever seen. Sure, he has a girlfriend, the very lovely Jennifer, so she resigns herself to just being his friend. But as time goes on, Ellie realizes that there are some very strange similarities between life at Avalon High and the legend of King Arthur. The events that unfold, such as one of the teachers, Mr. Morton, going a little batty, and Will's girlfriend, Jennifer, being secretly in love with his best friend, Lance, start to add up to one bizarre scenario. Could Will be the reincarnation of King Arthur, and could something really bad be working its way towards the halls of Avalon High?
I truly enjoyed AVALON HIGH, but Ms. Cabot's customary humor was strangely missing from the story. Although there are a few slightly humorous spots in the book, the laugh-out-loud wit and sarcasm from her previous releases is strangely absent. Overall, though, lovers of Athurian history or books about good versus evil will thoroughly enjoy this latest release.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
