A horse-like alien bestows special powers upon five kids: Jake, Marco, Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie. They have the ability to acquire animal DNA and transform into animals of their choosing, for the purpose of fighting an invasion of alien Yeerks. The Yeerks are little slugs that crawl into your head through your ears and turn you into 'controllers,' who blend in with the population. The Yeerks are a parasitic alien spreading planet to planet, swelling their ranks with host slaves. Their main enemy is another alien race, the Andalites, who gave the 'Animorphs' their powers.
I love the concept. I really do.
And though the books are geared for ten- and twelve-year olds, I like them.
(And they're short reads, only about 175 pages each)
I'll add that I don't mind the nostalgic 'Scholastic Fair' high.
These are the first six.
The Invasion, told from Jake's point-of-view, in which our five heroes stumble upon an Andalite alien who gives them power to morph into animals. They learn about the alien slugs invading earth and taking over peoples' bodies and take their first offensive action by infiltrating a Yeerk 'feeding' pool beneath the school. Tobias becomes permanently morphed as a hawk.
The Visitor, told from Rachel's point-of-view, in which she spies on the vice principal of her school, Mr. Chapman, who's high up in the Yeerk hierarchy. She and Jake are captured and delivered to Visser Three, the highest-ranking controller in the land. Visser Three is an Andalite controller, the only one in existence. Rachel and Jake narrowly escape death at Visser Three's hands with the aid of Marco, Cassie, and Tobias.
The Encounter, told from Tobias' point-of-view, in which Tobias struggles to retain his humanity in hawk morph; the four others morph into fish to infiltrate a flying Yeerk water tanker filling up at a nearby lake. Tobias brings down the ship, a show of humanity, and his friends escape the wreckage by morphing into birds of prey.
The Message, told from Cassie's point-of-view, in which she and Tobias receive 'visions' that are an S.O.S. call from a crashed Andalite ship. Our heroes morph into dolphins to find the wreckage beneath the sea before the Yeerks did; at the crashed ship they meet Ax, an Andalite, and they journey with him to safety. A pod of whales saves them from being eaten by Visser Three, who had morphed into a sea creature from one of the Andalite homeworld's moons.
The Predator, told from Marco's point-of-view, in which he, Jake, and Ax morph into lobsters to become incognito after Ax loses it in the food court (taste is a new thing to him) and gets Controllers onto him. Ax wants to build a Yeerk transponder to call an enemy ship to his position so he can seize it to make his escape. Our heroes infiltrate Mr. Chapman's basement as ants to steal a piece of alien equipment, then head to the rock quarry where they morph into their most powerful animals: Rachel an elephant, Jake a tiger, Cassie a wolf, and Marco a gorilla (and Tobias as a hawk as always). They call a Yeerk ship down but are captured and taken to the Mother Ship where Marco makes a gruesome discovery: his mother, 'lost at sea' and presumed to be dead, was Visser One, in charge of the invasion of earth and boss to Visser Three. Our heroes escape in an escape pod thanks to political machinations between Vissers aboard the Mother Ship, and Marco vows to fight to the death to rescue his mother.
The Capture, told from Jake's point-of-view, in which our heroes morph as cockroaches and sneak into a gathering of Yeerks where they learn that the enemy will be using the city hospital as an infestation pool or unvoluntary participants--including the governor, who was about to make a bid for the presidency. Our heroes infiltrate the hospital as flies, but Jake falls into a portable Yeerk pool and is infested. Ax recognizes the Yeerk's presence in him, and they isolate him for three days until the Yeerk inside his head dies. Before the Yeerk dies, Jake learns more about the Yeerk home-world, and there are some hints that the Andalites may not be the angels they seem.
The Message, told from Cassie's point-of-view, in which she and Tobias receive 'visions' that are an S.O.S. call from a crashed Andalite ship. Our heroes morph into dolphins to find the wreckage beneath the sea before the Yeerks did; at the crashed ship they meet Ax, an Andalite, and they journey with him to safety. A pod of whales saves them from being eaten by Visser Three, who had morphed into a sea creature from one of the Andalite homeworld's moons.
The Predator, told from Marco's point-of-view, in which he, Jake, and Ax morph into lobsters to become incognito after Ax loses it in the food court (taste is a new thing to him) and gets Controllers onto him. Ax wants to build a Yeerk transponder to call an enemy ship to his position so he can seize it to make his escape. Our heroes infiltrate Mr. Chapman's basement as ants to steal a piece of alien equipment, then head to the rock quarry where they morph into their most powerful animals: Rachel an elephant, Jake a tiger, Cassie a wolf, and Marco a gorilla (and Tobias as a hawk as always). They call a Yeerk ship down but are captured and taken to the Mother Ship where Marco makes a gruesome discovery: his mother, 'lost at sea' and presumed to be dead, was Visser One, in charge of the invasion of earth and boss to Visser Three. Our heroes escape in an escape pod thanks to political machinations between Vissers aboard the Mother Ship, and Marco vows to fight to the death to rescue his mother.
The Capture, told from Jake's point-of-view, in which our heroes morph as cockroaches and sneak into a gathering of Yeerks where they learn that the enemy will be using the city hospital as an infestation pool or unvoluntary participants--including the governor, who was about to make a bid for the presidency. Our heroes infiltrate the hospital as flies, but Jake falls into a portable Yeerk pool and is infested. Ax recognizes the Yeerk's presence in him, and they isolate him for three days until the Yeerk inside his head dies. Before the Yeerk dies, Jake learns more about the Yeerk home-world, and there are some hints that the Andalites may not be the angels they seem.
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