Animorphs Series, by K. A. Applegate

[lango]

First I'd like to say that, although most stories were written by K.A. Applegate, a few ghostwriters helped her in the process.

5 kids walking home pass by an abandoned construction site, where they encounter a dieing alien who tells them their planet is being invaded by a parasitic species called 'Yeerks'. They crawl into the human brain, take over and control the person entirely. The person can still think, feel, but cannot move, or talk. The dieing alien gives them the ability to morph so as to defend themselves, just before telling the kids to run away and then gets literaly eaten by one of the Yeerks' 'vissers', Visser Three, the only yeerk with the ability to morph.

The story mostly involves these five kids, Jake (the leader), Marco, Rachel, Cassie and Tobias who, after only the first book, gets trapped forever in bird morph. Oh yes, they can only stay in morph for 2 hours, otherwise they will stay morphed forever, and they can only morph into creatures whose DNA they acquire manually in human form. These 5 kids, or Animorphs as they call themselves, form a small guerrilla team to fight off the Yeerk invasion. What starts of as a simple children's book, with aliens, technologies and kids fighting to save the world suddenly take up much more adult topics such as politics (the alien who helped them, called an Andalite, does not exactly come from a friendly species), romance, and makes us think a lot about who we really are.

Each book is told by the PoV of one of these five kids, or later 'Ax', a sixth kid, an Andalite. Be it Jake, the powerful leader, full of morals, but finding himself being forced more and more into becoming an immoral being. Are you above using your friends?
Or maybe Rachel, the fearless fighter. How much battles can you live through before becoming your enemy?
Perhaps Cassie, the animal lover. Always defending humanity, always the nice one. But deep down, a much more dangerous an enemy than even Rachel. Which would you pick, doing what's right, or doing what's necessary?
Or Marco, the joker. Always making jokes about life, but his family and personality issues are no laughing matter. Would you kill your own mother if that meant saving the world?
There's Tobias. Sweet tobias, trapped in bird morph. Possibly the toughest animorph. But does he really want to ever become human again?
And then there's Ax, the Andalite. The stranger, the alien. Yet much more human than all of us.

This series completely took my breath away as multiple mini-plots keep unfolding to a very strong climax. Best book I've ever read in the character development subject, and yet just a children's tale.

[Bowie20049]

I remember reading the Animorphs series when I was younger. I was amazed at the ending.

[Rafael Domination]

I won't lie: I loved the series, although the way it ended was infuriating. I especially loved the little figure that morphs from human to animal (on one of the corners of each page).

[lango]

"Even the book morphs! Flip the pages and see!"
Indeed, that was pretty awesome :P
And Ellimist is still the best 'god-like' character in modern fiction in my opinion :D
I guess Animorphs is somewhat a guilty pleasure for everyone that read it in their childhood :P Something we might not admit we liked, but we definitely did

[Bowie20049]

The fact that they turned into animals appealed to me very well. Have you read the parody of it? It's called Veggimorphs, try to guess why.

[ScottyMcGee]

It's called Veggimorphs, try to guess why.

ZOMG! VEGGIEMORPHS! I HAVE THAT BOOK!


Ahh. .

Animorphs.

Fond childhood memories.

:D

[shadowsmith]

I liked the book series but I never read the ending :(

[simplesimplicity]

Veggiemorphs?? Lol. They turn into vegetables?

I think I've finished the series, a long time ago. Can't remember it though. I think there was like a sequel series too, wasn't there? A shorter one. I liked Tobias and Rachel =)