Animorphs

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The cover of the first book in the series, The Invasion.
The cover of the first book in the series, The Invasion.

Animorphs is an English language science fiction series of young adult books written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. The series was published from June 1996 to May 2001, and includes 54 books, along with ten companion books, of which 8 fit into the series' continuity (the 'Animorphs Chronicles' and 'Megamorphs' books) and two are gamebooks that do not fit in the continuity (the 'Alternamorphs' books). The word "Animorphs" refers to the protagonists of the series, and is a portmanteau of "Animal morphers."

The series was originally conceived as a three-part series called The Changelings, in which Jake was named Matt, and his little brother Joseph took Cassie's place in the Animorphs.

Animorphs chronicles the battles of five human teenagers and one alien youth as they fight a guerrilla war against a secret alien infiltration of Earth. The series is told in the first person, with a different narrator in every book. Applegate cycles through the books' six protagonists, telling the story of their secret war through each of the combatants' perspective. By using this method, she explores many of the dark aspects of the human condition. Horror, war, dehumanization, sanity, morality, innocence, leadership, and growing up are core motifs of the series.

The reader watches as each of these individuals grow up, struggling to cope with the horrors of war, the acts which they commit, and the compromises and retreats they must make to win the war (and sometimes, even just to survive). All because losing means a fate worse than death. This series allows one to observe the human condition as these six "normal" children are sculpted by their new, outrageous circumstances to face the darkest, and also the brightest, part of themselves and each other.

Contents

To develop the characters for Animorphs, K. A. Applegate would go through teenage magazines such as YM and Seventeen (both of which are referenced in the books when describing Rachel), cutting out pictures and piecing them together to get an idea of what sort of kids the Animorphs would look like. K. A. Applegate has stated in an interview online [1] that many of the names for her alien creatures, races, and locations are actually scrambled names of local street signs or companies that she happens to notice. For instance, the word nothlit was derived from the hotel name Hilton. According to the Anibase, K. A. Applegate did not make up the titles for the Animorphs books: it was up to the Scholastic editors to create the titles for the books based on the outlines provided by the author, having to select a word that not only fit the book's storyline, but sounded good with the characteristic "The" preface. One of the author's favorite books, The Lord of the Rings, lent several words and images to Animorphs: the elvish word for Orc, "yrch", became Yeerk; the flaming red Eye of Sauron inspired the Crayak, and Ax's middle name, "Esgarrouth", is the name of a town in the book. Also there was a minor reference to Gondor by Cassie in the 14th book.

Animorphs is above all else a war story. The core themes include the horrible but necessary nature of war to defend people's lives and freedom; the loss of innocence and the different effects of war on the mind and spirit; the moral and mental instabilities which must be adopted in times of war, such as "justified" and "impersonal" murder, "acceptable" losses, and dehumanization of both yourself and your enemy. Some other themes include the universality of good and evil (i.e. there's a little bit of good and a little bit of evil everywhere in every situation, person, race, species, etc.); the philosophy of complete nonviolence versus the idea that war is sometimes justified; the absolute harshness, wildness, and complexity of nature as a living system; the nature of leadership; coping with loss and hardship; the difficulties of finding one's own identity and one's own place in the universe; adaptation; and alienation.

The books throughout the series discuss underlying themes questioning the morality, judgment, and idea of what is good and evil facing the central characters. One such theme is the control of creatures and sentient beings. In the first book, the Yeerks are portrayed as evil and parasitic. Their intentions of aggressive invasion in order to control the bodies of their subjects leave little question in the minds of the Animorphs about the morality of their actions. However, the morphing technology employed by the Animorphs creates inconvenient parallels with the actions of their supposedly 'evil' enemy.

In the series, morphing is achieved by acquiring the DNA of the subject through physical contact. The creature is then replicated in both body and instincts when a morph occurs, but the original creature is left unharmed. The Animorphs are often forced to keep control of the animal's instincts; this is particularly true of certain animals that are described to have highly agitated mindsets, such as mice, or the hive mind instincts of insects, such as ants. Throughout the books, they deal with this issue with a mutual agreement not to morph sentient beings (particularly other humans) unless they gain prior consent. However, on several occasions, they find it impractical to maintain this self-imposed rule.

Also present is the theme of war blindness, expressed in the Animorphs' creed: "Fight the enemy, don't become them." This becomes particularly problematic when one Animorph or another loses objectivity in a given situation; the Yeerks take unwilling hosts, in most cases, and they have no problem fighting among civilians, seeing most humans as expendable. The Animorphs, however, cannot take such views, lest they stoop to the level of their enemies.

The names given here are the ones used throughout the majority of the series; in the last few books, some character's full names are revealed, and some change rank within their military hierarchy, hence changing name.

A selection of Animorphs books, beginning with The Invasion at top left and ending with The Beginning at bottom right, the first and last books in the series, respectively
A selection of Animorphs books, beginning with The Invasion at top left and ending with The Beginning at bottom right, the first and last books in the series, respectively

Each book in the series revolved around a given event during the war waged between the Animorphs and the invading Yeerks, the first book telling of how the Animorphs came to have their power.

In the United States, the books were most popular as A5-sized paperback volumes, and were usually between 150 and 200 pages long, divided into just under thirty chapters.

The first-page illustration of the first book in the series, The Invasion. Note how the position of the lizard's head is identical to that of the front cover.
The first-page illustration of the first book in the series, The Invasion. Note how the position of the lizard's head is identical to that of the front cover.

The front covers featured images of the narrating Animorph undergoing the various stages of one of the morphs from the story, with a few exceptions (noted in each book's article). Behind the morphing character were images of clouds and skies, which became more colorful and elaborate as the series progressed. All the covers of the regular series books had a small cutout over part of the full morph's anatomy, revealing a computer-generated illustration on the first page, which was printed on glossy paper. The illustration shared the image of the full morph with the front cover, but placed within an environment from the story. The book spines repeated the narrating character's face from the front cover, and the spine color changed with every new episode, resulting in a very colorful collection when viewed from any angle. A small excerpt from one of the book's chapters was printed on the inside of every front cover.

As of the eighth book, The Alien, the Animorphs logo, the author's name, and the book's title were printed in glossy, metallic-look ink, rather than the flat colors that had been used for the first seven books. In addition, the author's name and book title were surrounded by solid black rectangles. The majority of the books in the series were printed only in "metallic-ink editions". All further reprintings of the first seven books had this treatment applied to them as well.

The back cover of the first book in the series, The Invasion.
The back cover of the first book in the series, The Invasion.

The books in the series' final arc, beginning with the 45th book, The Revelation had yet another treatment applied to the cover, a variation on the new metallic style; the change affected only the main 'Animorphs' logo: instead of consisting of white letters superimposed on a metallic, colored background, the last ten books featured a logo with colored letters over a dark grey background, in contrast with the white logo background from the series' "opening arc". The final book, #54 The Beginning had a unique cover style, with the logo consisting of a glowing outline.

Every book featured an introduction to the series on the back cover, in the voice of one of the Animorphs.

We can't tell you who we are. Or where we live. It's too risky, and we've got to be careful. Really careful. So we don't trust anyone. Because if they find us... well, we just won't let them find us. The thing you should know is that everyone is in really big trouble. Yeah. Even you.

As of book 51, The Absolute, the introduction read as follows:

Here's the deal these days: They know exactly who we are. They know exactly where we live. We've got a few secrets left, and we're gonna use them. But just know that the end is coming. And we don't know how much longer we can do this. How much longer can we fight. What about you? Where will you be when it ends? Think about it. Think hard. Because the countdown has already begun...

In addition to this text, each book also carried an introduction, or teaser of sorts, to its own storyline.

Another interesting feature of the books was a flipbook composed of the bottom right-hand corners of all of the book's pages. A step of the cover morph was printed on each page, less than an inch tall, in black-and-white. When the pages were flipped from front to back, the narrating Animorph could be seen morphing into the animal.

The Animorphs series was printed in several languages and other English-language markets, and the books in those countries sometimes had different designs, layouts, cover quotes, and even different cover morphs, as is the case for the fifth book, The Predator, whose UK edition showed Marco morphing into a lobster, in contrast to the American edition's gorilla morph. Japanese-language covers were hand-drawn; The Invasion showed Jake morphing into his dog Homer, a morph that was featured on the cover of The Threat in the American editions.

Throughout the publication of the series, there was some dispute about the exact ages of the Animorphs at the time they received the ability to morph. However, with the help of various hints in the course of the series, many fans guessed their ages to be approximately 13-14 (with 13 being the more likely of the two) at the start. For example, at the beginning of the first book, "The Invasion", Jake mentions having tried out for his junior high basketball team and not making the team; this puts Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, and Tobias, at the very least, around the age of 11-14 as junior high (or middle school) in the United States is generally grade 6-8. Most likely, as they are allowed to roam out by themselves, they are closer to 12-14. This is also supported in book two, "The Visitor", by Rachel's mention of a cat given to Melissa Chapman by her father for her "twelfth birthday, or some birthday." This means that the characters are at least 12, although since Rachel cannot remember exactly which birthday it was, it has probably been some time since then allowing for at least one more birthday to possibly have happened.

In addition to these hints, Jake says outright, at the start of chapter 2 in book #53, that he was 13 when he started and has been fighting the war for more than three years, which would make them 16. In book #54, 2 or 3 more years passed. They are either 19 or 20 years old in the end, depending on how long they have been in space.

Many of the novels from the #25-#52 range were written by ghostwriters. Typically, K. A. Applegate would write a detailed outline for each book, and a ghostwriter, usually one of Applegate's former editors or writing protégés, would spend a month or two writing the actual novel. After this, Applegate, and later her series editor, Tonya Alicia Martin, would edit the book to make it fit in with the series' tight continuity. Ghostwriters are credited for their help in the book's dedication page: "The author would like to thank [ghostwriter name] for his/her help in preparing this manuscript."

The only books fully written by Applegate herself after #26 are #32 The Separation, #53 The Answer, #54 The Beginning, and all of the Megamorphs and Chronicles books.

The following books in the series were ghostwritten:

It is worth noting that Applegate originally intended to write every single Animorphs book herself. However, due to many contributing factors - such as the birth of her son, and the difficulties involved in writing Everworld (which was originally intended to be mostly ghostwritten, like Applegate's third Scholastic series Remnants), she ended up having to have a large number of the books ghostwritten.

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K. A. Applegate's Animorphs series
Main series: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48–50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54
Megamorphs: The Andalite's Gift • In the Time of Dinosaurs • Elfangor's Secret • Back to Before
Chronicles: The Andalite Chronicles • The Hork-Bajir Chronicles • Visser • The Ellimist Chronicles
Alternamorphs: The First Journey • The Next Passage
Animorphs: Jake • Rachel • Cassie • Marco • Tobias • Ax • David • Auxiliary Animorphs
Secondary characters: Aldrea • Alloran • Arbron • Crayak • Drode • Elfangor • Ellimist • Erek King • Toby Hamee • Visser One • Visser Three
Minor characters: Andalites • Hork-Bajir • Humans • Ketrans • Yeerks • Other minor characters
Species: Andalite • Arn • Capasin • Chee • Gedd • Helmacron • Hork-Bajir • Howler • Iskoort • Ketran • Leeran • Mercora • Nartec • Nesk • Pemalite • Skrit Na • Taxxon • Veleek • Yeerk • Other species
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animorphs"
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