Not A Normal High School

          Almost every high school, although unique, is fundamentally the same. There are  your typical classes, pretty ordinary sports teams, and cliques that don't interact with each other very much. One of these cliques is the populars, which is a group of kids that tend to have a lot of money, live in luxury, are very attractive, have lots of friends, and are practically worshiped by the other kids at school. Their lives appear perfect and they never do anything that could possibly be considered "uncool". Everyone pretty much goes about their day and cruel, though not very serious rumors are the closest the school gets to conflict or controversy. Avalon High is one of the few high schools that isn't like this.

         It isn't like Avalon High School from the book "Avalon High" by Meg Cabot doesn't appear to be normal. It does. There's a football team, a track team, a popular crowd, and although the classes focus more on medieval times than typical high school classes do, but they're really not anything out of the ordinary. So to Ellie Harrison, a new student at Avalon High, it seems like a really normal school. However, it really isn't. Will Wagner, the quarterback and most popular boy at the school, is the center of a lot of controversy and major drama (not the normal high school kind) going on in the school. His father killed his [the father] friend and then married his friend's wife. His stepbrother almost killed a teacher and was kicked out of school because of that. Not to mention that his best friend and his girlfriend are dating behind his back. Will feels so overwhelmed that although he is still the most popular kid in school, he has started acting very unlike your average popular kid. Not to mention that Ellie (who was never the popular type) and Will have formed a special bond because Will feels he has "met her in another life". So, Ellie becomes a part of all of this drama, and eventually finds out that the reason this school is so bizarre is because many people in it are the reincarnation of the people in the King Arthur legends!

          "Avalon High" is one of my favorite books, and I have read it many times. I think that the reason I like it so much because it is so creative and over the top, yet I can relate to it. I was never really into the King Arthur legends, but this book made them interesting to me. Also, I find Ellie a character that is easy to relate to, especially for me. Like me, she tends to get stuck in the middle of things. She's also pretty studious and down-to-earth, but likes to let go sometimes and can occasionally have her head in the clouds. Not to mention that both of Ellie's parents are professors, as are mine. I also like this play on high school life, because in this school, it appears normal but there is much more to it than meets the eye. The book also showed me that there is more to high school than how it seems, that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Avalon High taught me a lot, not just about the King Arthur legends, but also about life.