RADICAL READING: Animorphs – A Primer – The Best Freking Book Blog

Transforming children into animals since 1996

Welcome to RADICAL READING, a new segment(?) of my blog where I read the classic books of my childhood. I’m not talking about Harry Potter, I’m talking the cheap, pulpy, $2.99 books that are about 60 pages each. The things that apparently almost killed the Junior/YA fiction genres. We are starting this segment off with Animorphs.

Animorphs has become a really weird pop culture property. I remember going to the library for our Summer Reading Program and checking out these books by the handful. However, I never read them (I said I did for the prizes, sorry for lying Miss Debbie). I checked them all out for the covers. Oh man, I loved them so much. They all featured kids in various stages of transformation to animals. You know. They…

Ani-Morph. Hence the title.

Just look at this beauty. It’s not even the best one. A kid turns into a slug. A SLUG. A SLUG, READERS.

I have often heard this talked about in the same way that Goosebumps is. In hushed tones of, “Yeah I read that in elementary school.” However, when pressed, no one can ever give me an answer as to what it is about. “Aliens or something.”

Well, reader, it’s time we find out.

Based on the cover, I’m pretty sure this is about the Lizard People taking over our government. – Scholastic

Over the next few months, I will be reading the entire Animorphs series and posting my thoughts. I may do a post per book or combine them like my digests. Of course, I will have commentary on all the covers. I’ll also take a look at some of the reprints and their HORRIFYING covers.

There is also the TV show, the new graphic novel, and apparent movie that we will cover here. Eventually. Don’t hold me to it.

So, what is Animorphs about? This book series was written by Katherine Applegate (The One and Only Ivan, Wish Tree) and her husband Michael Grant. The story follows five kids and an alien: Tobias, Marco, Cassi, Rachel, Jake, and Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. I’ll give you a couple minutes to figure out who the alien is. They gain the ability to turn into any animal they touch which is pretty rad. They use these powers to take on an alien race, the Yeerks, who are invading Earth. The Yeerks are little sluggy-bois that can burrow in someone’s brain and take control of them.

Sounds like your pretty basic alien adventure story. So, that’s about it for this one. Next up, I’ll be covering book one: The Invasion. See you all then!