Product Description

Being a new student at Avalon High has been exciting for Ellie, to say the least—she's an honor student, a star on the track team, and, oh yeah, dating the super-hot class president, Will. Who also happens to be the alleged reincarnation of King Arthur.

Ellie couldn't be happier to have Will in her life, but she's also worried that his estrangement from his parents is tearing him apart. To make matters worse, Will's doubt that he really is King Arthur could prevent the Merlin Prophecy—an age of enlightenment—from occurring. Can Ellie convince Will to believe in something that even she isn't sure about? And more importantly, can she get him to give his parents another chance?

With all the mythology and mysticism of avalon high, Meg Cabot's very first manga is indeed a tale for the ages.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45440 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-01
• Released on: 2007-07-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Comic
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This manga adaptation of Cabot's 2005 novel tells the story of a perfectly ordinary high school girl—who happens to be dating the reincarnation of King Arthur. Ellie Harrison moves to a new town and a new school, and soon finds herself drawn to Will Wagner, the football star. Her history professor Mr. Morton—or is that Merlin?—believes that Will is the reincarnation of England's legendary king and Ellie is the newborn Lady of the Lake. He enlists her help to persuade Will to accept his duty and conquer evil. The rest of the Arthurian cast is here as well—Lance, Will's best friend; Jennifer, Will's ex-girlfriend; Morgan, the high school's queen bee and Marco, Will's half-brother—and they play out the classic story with a high school twist. The vivid manga style brings the novel to life, with all the characters svelte and beautifully drawn. Unfortunately, a third of the volume is spent recapping the story so far, making this feel like a later book in a series, rather than the first. The story turns are predictable to anyone familiar with Arthurian myth, and the characters one-dimensional, but this adaptation should appeal to fans of the original work. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up—The Merlin Prophecy brings to illustrated life the first bit of Cabot's Avalon High (HarperCollins, 2006). When King Arthur fell, the Order of the Bear rose to track each generation's incarnation of him. Now Merlin, otherwise known as Mr. Morton, has found a modern Arthur in Will, the captain of the football team at Avalon High. And it's up to new girl Ellie, otherwise known as the Lady of the Lake, to make sure that he survives an attack by his half-brother Marco, otherwise known as Mordred. Throw in Lance, his girlfriend Jennifer, and mean Morgan, and the round table is nearly complete. Coronado uses more of a traditional black-and-white comic-book format than a true Japanese-style manga (think Archie, not Oh My Goddess!). Though covering just a small bit of the novel, this book is a must for libraries with the usual wealth of Cabot fans.—Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Cabot's Avalon High (2005) is reworked as a graphic novel, with mixed results. Part of the charm of Cabot's writing is her ability be ironic without belittling her characters or her readers. Such subtlety is lost in this visual remake. Ellie has it all, including a hunky boyfriend—who doesn't realize he's the reincarnation of King Arthur. Coronado's art is playful and expressive, but less authentic manga than Western cartooning with Asian influences. Cabot fans will likely prefer the straight prose, but girls who read comics as a steady diet might enjoy this taste of the popular writer. Goldsmith, Francisca

Customer Reviews

Made me want to read the original novel
Manga version of Avalon High.

Ellie is a normal high school girl attending a normal high school where many of the students just may be reincarnations of the big players in the King Arthur legend.

The book has promise, but just as I was getting interested, it ended on a cliffhanger with nothing resolved. Kind of a waste of time unless you have the next book at hand!

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Fans of Meg Cabot are treated to a change in style by the author. Paired with artist Jinky Coronado, Ms. Cabot retells AVALON HIGH in a comic/manga style. Readers do not have to have read AVALON HIGH to follow this new version of the story.

Elle Harrison has just moved to Annapolis with her history buff parents. Almost immediately weird things start to happen. Her history teacher, Mr. Morton, explains it as the return of King Arthur and the Age of Enlightenment. Apparently Elle is the Lady of the Lake and the football star, Will Wagner, is Arthur reincarnated. Elle's parents totally believe the story. Will thinks it's all a joke. And Elle, she doesn't know what to believe. The pieces all seem to fit together perfectly. Is it too much of a coincidence?

What takes 300 pages to be told in the original young adult story is told in just over 100 pages via the comic version. Of course, many of the details are left out. But the drawings reveal the story beautifully. Elle has to try to convince Will that he is King Arthur before the Homecoming dance. If he doesn't accept that he is the reincarnated King, the Age of Enlightenment can not happen, and the world will be thrust into darkness. No pressure, right? And to make matters worse, Will's brother, Marco, previously thought to be locked safely in a mental institution, is now out, and no one may be safe.

This is my first foray into this book style. Having read AVALON HIGH, I must admit I enjoyed THE MERLIN PROPHECY more than I expected to. I was instantly drawn to Elle and her adventures. The pictures were very vibrant, even in black and white. The details were amazing, and the story unfolded quickly and smoothly. Of course, Ms. Cabot leaves the reader wanting to learn what comes next. Not even the original story reveals how all the characters turn out. The reader will just have to wait for the continuation in AVALON HIGH CORONATION VOL. 2: HOMECOMING, due out in June 2008.

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

Good Beginning to 3-Book Series
Meg Cabot is a high profile author whose books have gone on to become movies and television shows. Her series include The Mediator, 1-800-Where-R-You (which became the television show, MISSING), The Princess Diaries (which became movies of the same name), and others as well as many stand-alone books of romance and humor.

AVALON HIGH was originally a stand-alone title but was picked by TokyoPop to become a 3-volume graphic novel series. The book is also in development with Disney to become a live-action film.

The story is very familiar, culled from the Arthurian mythos and brought into the high school arena. Arthur is now known as Will, and he quickly becomes the boyfriend of Elle, who is basically the character of the Lady of Shalott. All of the other Arthurian legends are represented as well: Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, Modred, and Morgan Le Fey.

Jinky Coronado's black and white drawings are a pleasure to view and up the frenzied pace of the book. Coronado blends the pure manga stylings with current, popular comic book art that creates an interesting hybrid on the pages. The sequential action draws the eye naturally. Several of the panels kept drawing my attention back to them because they were so well done.

Cabot's story is pretty straightforward and simple. King Arthur has been reborn once more, but that means his enemies have also been reborn. The main problem: according to Mr. Morton (Elle's history teacher and very probably Merlin the wizard), Will Wagner must recognize and accept himself as the rebirth of Arthur. That's not going to be an easy feat because Will is certain he knows who he is. And he has to do it within a few weeks or the world will be destroyed.

The impending destruction of the world is such an easy thing to lay on teenagers! But Elle is quickly off and running as she tries to deal with being the new girl in school, being Will's girlfriend, and dealing with the enemies they have separately as well as together. Morgan in particular doesn't care for Elle.

Unfortunately, the first third of the graphic novel is more or less a summary of things that have gone on before. This choice really impedes the story for a while, and it takes up so many pages that by the time the tale gets underway, it's practically over. Still, the cliffhanger ending should bring readers back around for a do-over.

I'm looking forward to reading the other two volumes in the series, as well as handing it off to friends of mine who are heavily into graphic novels. But now I have to go back and read the book as well, because I somehow missed that one. And I'm going to be interested in the upcoming movie as well.

If you want light, easy entertainment with some extended value (or at least something you can share with other and talk about quickly), Cabot's new manga series is a good choice. It's not as far out there as some of the Japanese manga, and it's a great size to throw in a backpack or back pocket for on-the-road reading.