Avalon High by Meg Cabot

Title: Avalon High

Author: Meg Cabot

Publication Date: 27^th December 2005.

Summary of the book: Elaine "Ellie" Harrison and her family have moved to Annapolis, Maryland, while her parents are on sabbatical. Ellie's parents are professors of medieval history; they plan to do research in Annapolis on their separate interest, the Lady of Shalott and a sword which resembles the Arthurian Excalibur.

Ellie is a 16-year-old junior in high school who is not thrilled about moving, but is used to dealing with her parents' eccentricities. Like when they named her Elaine, after Alfred Lord Tennyson's ill-fated character the Lady of Shalott. Elaine of Astolat, in the poem, killed herself when Sir Lancelot chose to love Queen Guinevere over her. Ellie sees the poetic Elaine as a weak woman and is not thrilled to be named after her.

Ellie makes a few friends at school and finds herself pulled into the intriguing world of A. William "Will" Wagner, as well as his best friends; Jennifer Gold (his girlfriend) and Lance Reynolds. However a strange connection brings Ellie, Lance, Jennifer, Will, along with their teacher Mr Moore and Will’s step brother Marco closer together…

I liked this book because it spins a tale on high-school characters being reincarnations of historical characters, in this instance Ellie and her friends are reincarnations of King Author and the Knights of the Round Table. There are a lot of references to the legend of King Author in the novel, but they are added subtly so that you don’t notice them straight away.

Jennifer, Elle, Lance and Will are all likeable characters, and so is Mr Moore who also plays a critical part in the novel. After starting to read the novel, you begin to understand the characters better, and they are more relatable, since they all have their flaws and none of them are perfect. At the beginning of the novel we learn that Elle’s parents are professors who take a keen interest in medieval history and this foreshadows what will happen at the end of the novel.

“Meg Cabot does it again with this lively and intriguing rendition of the story of King Arthur. The characters, storyline and intricate details will have readers not wanting to put the book down. This is an excellent tie-in for teaching medieval history, guaranteeing that Avalon High will have students clamoring for more.” –Teen reads.

This is one of my all-time favorite books and it is extremely well written and I found all the characters very likeable, and I liked how the books ties in with legends from history, making the storyline original and clever.

Currently there is a film adaptation of the novel starring; Britt Robertson, Devon Graye, Molly C. Quinn, Christopher Tavarez, Steve Valentine and Gregg Sulkin. Although in conclusion I found the film enjoyable, but they changed a lot of the book.

Buy the book: here
Read more about Meg Cabot: here
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