#animorphs books

[peetsmoss]

What if I spent the summer making Animorph fanart, then what?

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Apparently Scholastic is selling reprints of Animorphs books 1-6 with their original covers! https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/animorphs-retro-tin-set-9781338678833.html

Unfortunately, it's only available in the US.

Excellent news! Hopefully we see these spread to other countries, and maybe even get reprints of the whole series. Link is here as well. Everyone who has ever downloaded the series for free, please consider buying just one book to show Scholastic that the interest is still out there.

[pensivetrolley]

Reading Animorphs for the first time might post occasional updates if anyone cares enough to read them… Here are my brief thoughts from finishing The Invasion!

Animorphs: The Invasion was a lot of fun! I've been wanting to experience this series since I was a kid.

Something about long narratives always enticed me but for one reason or another buying 50 books just felt like... a lot! But I figure that now is as good a time as any to begin to experience these.

I'm kinda shocked at the end of this book. I knew that at one point or another one of these kids would morph more over two hours and become stuck. Like why else would the rule even be put in place? I always figured it was somewhere in the middle of the story, not in book one. So I'm shocked and excited as to where the story can go from here. In ways most books don't feel, this definitely felt like a pilot. And it is nice just to have some short easy books to read. I think the transformation aspect is more fun than I was expecting. Giving them the feelings and experiences of animals as opposed to just taking their form gives more weight to it all. Something about Tobias being the hawk and loving his experience as it resonated with me. I want wings too! I hope he enjoys his remaining life as a hawk.

Also why was Jake always talking about how pretty

Rachel is like bro....

[finchrambles]

I’ve never read animorphs!

[robylovi]

Holy FUCCCCKKK Do the animorph books keep surprising me

[dddemigirl]

I wonder who won this? 🤔🐯🦍🐬🐺🐟🦎

[shinyemikyu]

Okay, laugh at me all you want for “discovering” old-ass media, but:

For entirely unknown reasons, I just watched the first episode of the Animorphs TV show. I will not be watching any more.

I can totally forgive the bad special effects, and even find them a bit quaint and charming. I can even forgive the bad acting, despite that being less excusable. What I cannot and will not forgive is DESTROYING THE ENTIRE FUCKING PREMISE IN THE FIRST FUCKING EPISODE.

I don’t mind the fact that the walk through the construction site plays out a little differently than in the books. I don’t love the decidedly un-Rachel-like scream of terror while they’re hiding, but whatever. But then. Then:

VISSER THREE CLEARLY SEES JAKE IN HUMAN FORM WHILE THEY’RE RUNNING AWAY!

I don’t mean “oh look he ran right in front of him how would he not see that” and you can handwave it with him being distracted or some dumb shit. No. I mean the camera lingers on a shot FROM VISSER THREE’S PERSPECTIVE where Jake’s face is clearly visible.

But it’s worse than that. Because obviously a Yeerk infesting an Andalite body doesn’t know this random kid who saw too much. But just before this, we had Elfangor telepathically showing the kids what a Yeerk looks like. (I don’t even remember transmitting images via thought speak being in the books - was that a thing in the books? If not and it was made up just for the show then this is even worse.)

So we have established that Andalites can transmit images via thought speak and that Visser Three saw Jake’s face. Now I realize Visser Three is not the brightest, but I feel like even he could figure out the obvious: show all the human controllers this kid he saw and ask if anyone recognizes them. Then Tom is like “Yo that’s my host’s little brother let’s infest him”. So they do, at which point they learn the other Animorphs’ identities, infest them too, and now they have five morph-capable human hosts and no resistance. War over; Yeerks: 1, humanity: 0.

Admittedly I didn’t watch any more episodes, but based on the fact that they exist I’m guessing that’s not what happens in the show.

So. If for some reason any other adult in the year 2023 was still thinking of randomly watching the Animorphs TV show, don’t. You’re welcome.

Definitely reread the books though. They hold up surprisingly well.

[smoldragonblood]

gay?

[trashcanmoose]

Animorphs commentary from my friend, a first-time Animorphs reader (Part 1)

So a friend of mine (whose name I'm excluding for privacy reasons) is reading Animorphs for the first time, and once she reached about book three (The Encounter), she started giving me some commentary on her thoughts with the series. I asked her if I could share what she's sent me, and she said yes, so here's what she's sent me so far, which will be continued in future posts as time goes on:

(these first messages are around the time of her readthrough of book 3)

The next messages were books 4-7, as well as a bit of jumping ahead that she did.

For reference, "Theola" who she's mentioning is my D&D character that I play in a campaign we're in together. Theola was actually loosely based on Cassie.

She's well-aware that this book series is from the 90s, by the way. She's just giving some extra input on the feel of the series.

So that's what she's sent me so far! I'm really enjoying the commentary, so I'm glad she said I could share it with Tumblr. I hope the other Animorphs fans here find this as entertaining as I do.

To be continued!

[crows-and-cookies]

Guys I vaguely remember reading once that Michael Grant (co-author of Animorphs) was wanted by the FBI at some point and on the run and used Animorph money to pay off court fees? Did I dream this?

[hapalopus]

Animorphs really has a way to turn every scifi trope on its head. "Why do alien invasions always start in America?" Actually the body snatchers first landed in a Middle Eastern farming community where they kidnapped the first guy they saw, read his mind, and concluded that, since he was terrified of the US soldiers who had brutally destroyed everything he knew and loved, the US would be the ideal place to center their invasion. This is revealed in the spin-off "Visser" which is an excellent stand-alone book that can be read without any prior knowledge of Animorphs. And you can read it for free and with the author's blessing right here:

https://files.animorphsfanforum.com/ebooks/pdf/Visser.pdf

[cheeseoneveryfudgingthing]

Someone the other day told me that I seemed like the type of person who would have read those “books with the weird covers of kids turning into animals” and just

yes thank you that’s me

[kooldewd123]

animorphs is a comedy series

[justghostingaround]

The books that formed me

One book series that really formed my childhood had to be the Animorphs books. I’ve been reading them on and off for almost 15 years at this point and I’m still so obsessed. I can even remember how it all started, clear as day. It was summer and I was between the ages of 10 and 12 and just came home after spending time with family. There in my room was a small, wall mounted shelf with probably 7 or 8 unfamiliar but worn books on them. I remember picking up the first one, titled Animorphs #2: The Visitor and just being so confused. The other few books were scattered throughout the series, I don’t think any were above #30. I asked my mom what they were, was it a girl who could turn into a cat? Or a cat who could turn into a girl? And all she’d say was I’d have to read them and find out. And that started it all. I became obsessed, going to family, friends, the library, thrift stores, and my first forays into reading off of Wattpad where users had transcribed the books and posted them for those like me who were desperate to read them.

And for years, I collected and collected, jumping at every chance I could to read any one I hadn’t yet been able to. For one I was on the library wait-list for about a year before finally getting the book, having completely forgotten it in the mean time. And the more I collected, the more the actual picture of the themes of Animorphs grew. Of course I was aware of the body horror, how can you not be after reading just a single book, any book in the series. But to me then they were still just quirky books about kids fighting and turning into animals, trying to save the world. Not much of a deeper meaning. Then, when I was about 15 my older sister came home one day with the holy grail of the series I hadn’t managed to track down: #54. At this point I was still hadn’t read the majority of books #40 and on, so I was so excited to see how the story ends after all my rereads and attempts to access what I could. And then I was so devastated.

But even after reading the series finale, I was still obsessed. Going months without really thinking of the books, but always coming back to them, as I still do. It wasn’t for another 5 or 6 years after that that I found the online forum with all of the books posted and I devoured them. And only then, over a decade after I first began reading this series, did the horror, and brutality of these books begin to dawn on me. Not backing away from the difficult subjects but embracing them and showing us the ugly truths of war, and still, it is my favourite childhood series BECAUSE it didn’t back away from these truths. And even now, I still come back to this series every once in awhile because it showed us these truths that the rest of the world tried to hide away or make light of. And I’m still obsessed, going through reread after reread, still trying to collect the last 10 or so books I’m physically missing from my collection, now adding the graphic novels as they come out, getting excited all over again at seeing these stories I have cherished for years brought to life in pictorial form.. And I just want to thank K. A. Applegate for bringing these books to us, for creating these impacts and changes to our lives and knowing I would not be who I am today without these books.

[mooskobold]

When everything's made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am