#K. A. Applegate

[ziekaramaik]

Me: I shouldn't feel bad about taking so long to finish my animorphs fanfiction. It took K. A. Applegate a full five years to get to the end of the real thing.

Also Me: But during those five years they consistently published a complete book every single month, along with occasional bonus books.

Me: Shut up.

[selwyngrimm]

Neat!

[tintededges]

Animorphs The Graphic Novel: The Encounter

Graphic novel adaptation of middle grade sci-fi series Animorphs The novelty of my favourite series as a ten year old being adapted into graphic novels has not yet worn off, and I eagerly ordered the next one for my Short Stack Reading Challenge. Photo is of “Animorphs the Graphic Novel: The Encounter” by K. A. Applegate and Michael Grant, and adapted by Chris Grine. The paperback book is…

[doyouknowthischaracter]

DO YOU KNOW THIS CHARACTER?

[sittinwithyou]

Seven Covers in Seven Days, pt 4.

If you like this, feel obligated to tag someone else you wanna see more books from.

@ruthybaby, I don't know you, but the tag monster chose you from the aether.

This book taught me that science-fiction doesn't have to be Dune to be good. And I'll probably even stay awake through most of it.

[lordsmaf]

I don’t know if anyone following me actually cares or if they just keep reblogging that post I made back in January but the third Animorphs graphic novel is out now for anyone who’s interested

[jumboseafood]

Rachel and Rachel

I just realized something very funny. Rachel from Worm and Rachel from Animorphs are very similar both are animalistic and belligerent girl bosses who just so happen to be on the complete opposite side of the gender presentation spectrum

[batwhorebile]

Oh so Applegate wrote animorphs also.... sorry i didn't know

[saintkevorkian]

In the Time of Dinosaurs [1998]

[first--lines]

My name is Jake. That's my first name, obviously. I can't tell you my last name. It would be too dangerous. The Controllers are everywhere. Everywhere. And if they knew my full name, they could find me and my friends, and then...well, let's just say I don't want them to find me. What they do to people who resist them is too horrible to think about.

  —  The Invasion (K. A. Applegate)

[fish3s]

"Be happy for me, and for all who fly free."

i <3 this emo bird boy. no i will not stop obsessing over obscure 90s media. animorphs fandom are u alive???

[ketran-zemi]

When the author who shaped much of your childhood is entirely wonderful. Posted on her Facebook and her Twitter

(Transcript under cut)

Transcript:

Hi, it’s me, Katherine: Parent. Children’s author. Murderer. Child abuser.

In 1979, I had a safe and legal abortion in Texas.43 years later, a Texas woman named Lizelle Herrera was indicted for murder in connection with the “death of an individual through a self-induced abortion.” (The charges were dropped. The threat was not.)

In 2016, my daughter transitioned to female, after much consideration and with remarkable courage.

6 years later, Texas governor Greg Abbott issued an executive directive that would allow parents who provide medically necessary care for their transgender children to be investigated for child abuse. (The directive was temporarily stayed. The threat remains.)

By my count, that makes me a potential felon, two times over. At least in the Lone Star State.

Full disclosure: I love Texas.

I love its bluebonnets. I love its dive bars. I love its Don’t Mess with Texas shot glasses.

Back in the day, I lived in Texas for several years. I graduated from Clear Creek High School, outside of Houston, and the University of Texas at Austin.

I’m not a native, not even a long-term transplant (and transplants in Texas don’t really count, unless you’re Elon Musk, apparently).But I’ve never stopped loving it. I adore its bookstores (looking at you, Blue Willow and Book People). I have dear friends there. I even met my husband in Texas.

So yeah. I love the state. But these days, it’s breaking my heart.

For over thirty years, I’ve been writing books for children—including a series called Animorphs, which I co-authored with my husband, Michael Grant. Books about tolerance and freedom and kindness. Books with queer kids and POC kids and kids (and animals) who threaten the status quo.

This year, I’ve watched with shock and dismay as some Texans try to ban the very books kids most need to read.

Here’s the thing. I’ve been invited to attend the Texas Library Association conference in Fort Worth at the end of April. It’s a great conference, a favorite of many authors, because it’s a vibrant celebration of all things literary.

TLA is a place where librarians gather to learn, grow, and celebrate. And librarians are some of my favorite people. They are heroes on the front lines of the struggle for free thought and free expression. They are book evangelists.

I love TLA. But I’m not going to go this year.

It’s a hard decision. I know librarians are the good guys. I know our kids need to hear from those of us on the right side of history.

I’m not boycotting TLA, mind you. Boycotting libraries and bookstores would be like friendly fire. I’ll continue to support Texas bookstores every way I can. I’ll Zoom with Texas classrooms till the steers come home.

But I just cannot be in a state where my daughter is not safe. A state where women have no control over their own bodies.

Boycotts have a mixed history of effectiveness. And where do we draw the line, when red state after red state challenges our rights?

Honestly, I don’t know the answer. I just know that right now I’m tired, like many of us are. And so very angry.

I’ll always love you, Texas. Even if you don’t love me back.

But damn. What’s happened to y’all?

[amortaldothapproach]

Dear Animorphs Readers:

Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.

So I thought I'd respond.

Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.

That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.

Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.

I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.

So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.

If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.

K.A. Applegate

I don't have any opinions on the ending yet because I'm not nearly there but this is the quote (supposedly communicated through email to a fansite admin) that got me reading a lengthy children's series as an adult.

[myothertardisisonthemun]

Every time I go to swat or spray an insect I always remember that one book from Animorphs where Jake gets swatted and nearly dies,

and part of my brain goes maybe I shouldn't do this, what if this is one of the animorphs

[heyniyasmile]

We all have our own particular fears, Byx. One can be brave nine times and be a coward the tenth time. That is true out of all living things capable of thought.

Gambler, Endling: The First

[jerichomere]

??? Apparently the animorphs are graphic novels now?? I was randomly flipping through one and here’s Cassie being perfect.

I’ve had a vivid memory of this scene ever since I read it and now I can look at it with my eyes ?!