Hooray for YA (Fiction, that is)!

Confession time: I've read Avalon High before. Probably four or five times. One of the many perks (?) of being a bookworm as a kid. I loved it then, and I still love it now, though I find myself cringing way more at the cheesiness of it all as an adult.

This of course does not mean I didn't find moments about Will that I thought were pretty consistent with the Arthur we know, such as saving the drowning kid. That's pretty noble and selfless. But I think Meg Cabot does some things with Arthur's character that we haven't seen yet. My favorite moment is when Will buys Ellie lemonade from the kids at the park. Will is silly in a way that Arthur hasn't been in our other stories. Part of that comes from being a high-schooler, but I think we also get to see how Arthur interacts with the little guy with moments like this. Even as a young man, this Arthur is a man of the people, which is pretty cool. Yes, it's corny and cheesy and ridiculous, but I don't think Cabot's a fool. She knows what Arthur means to people, and I think she's able to put him into the context of high school drama in a way that makes sense and feels genuine.