# Animorphs

Animorphs (1996-2001) by K. A. Applegate is an English language science fiction series of young adult books about five humans and an alien who obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch. Using their ability, they battle a secret alien infiltration of Earth.

## #1: The Invasion

    Jake: (narrating) Sometimes I think about that one, last moment when we were still just normal kids. It's like it was a million years ago, like it was some totally different group of kids. You know what I was afraid of right then? I was afraid of admitting to Tom that I hadn't made the team. That was as scary as life got back then. Five minutes later, life got a lot scarier.
    Elfangor: The Hork-Bajir are a good people, despite their fearsome appearance. They have been conquered by the Yeerks. They are to be pitied. The Taxxons are evil.
    Marco: We're pretty sure the cop is a Controller. And I don't care what you say, Jake, I think Tom is, too. So, here's the deal. You want to get into this fight against the Yeerks? Fine. Let's see how much you want to do it when it turns out it's your own brother you have to destroy.
    Jake: (stops cold)
    Marco: It's not exactly some video game, is it? This is reality. You don't know anything about reality, Jake. Nothing bad has ever really happened to you. You have this perfect family. Like I used to have.
    Jake: (realizes Marco is right, that he doesn't know about reality the way Marco and Tobias do)
    Marco: So maybe we just walk away from this. Let someone else fight this fight. Sorry about the Andalite, but I've got enough death in my family.
    Jake: No. (surprising himself) The Andalite gave us the morphing power for a reason. It wasn't just for the fun of being a dog or a horse or a bird. He hoped we would fight.
    Marco: Then maybe Tom is the enemy. Maybe it's your own brother you'll end up destroying.
    Jake: Yes. (throat tightens) Maybe that's what will happen. Maybe not. But the first step is to find out more. And I think maybe the way to do that is to check out this meeting of The Sharing. Tonight. I'll call the others. Anyone wants to come, cool. You want to stay out of it, Marco, that's cool, too.
    Marco: (hesitates, glares at Tobias) Okay, it's just a meeting, right? We go and see. I'm in for that.
    Marco: Let's see, it's you versus Chapman, the cops, a bunch of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, and, worst of all, that creep, Visser Three. All you can do to fight them is turn into a dog and bite their ankles. It's like being stuck in the most impossible video game ever invented.
    Jake: Look. I'm not asking anyone else to go with me. But I don't have a choice. I heard that scream today. And I know Tom is going down there tonight. He's my brother. I have to try and save him. (holds out hands, helpless) I have to do it. For Tom.
    Jake: I think we have to head to The Gardens. We need to get some help from Mother Earth's toughest children. (to Cassie) Can you get us in?
    Cassie: I can get in free. You guys will have to pay, but I can use my mom's employee discount, so it'll be cheaper.
    Marco: Oh, I'm sure we could talk them into letting us in for nothing. Just tell them we're Animorphs.
    Rachel: Tell them we're what?
    Marco: Idiot teenagers with a death wish.
    Marco: Now do you see why it's crazy to think we can beat the Yeerks? I mean, come on: We can barely beat zoo security.
    Jake: (speaking very slowly and quietly) Marco, is there something behind me?
    Marco: (nods)
    Jake: What is it, Marco?
    Marco: Um... Jake? It's a tiger.
    (in the tiger exhibit)
    Marco: I think he noticed us. I think he knows we are here, Jake. I think he's looking right at us! Look at his teeth!
    Jake: Don't freak! I have an idea. The morphing. If I acquire him, it'll put him in a trance.
    Marco: Acquire? Acquire what? You can't acquire anything about him. He's the acquirer, and you're the acquiree. He's going to acquire your butt for dinner! He's going to acquire you and spit out the bones.
    Everyone: (walking down what seems like endless stairs to the Yeerk pool)
    Marco: Some superior aliens. You'd think they could have put in an elevator.
    Tobias: (now stuck as a hawk) They'll come. The Andalites will come. And until then...
    Jake: (nods and wipes tears) Yeah. Until then, we fight.

## #2: The Visitor

    Rachel (narrating) The words were normal enough. I guess my own mom or dad could have said exactly the same things to me. "Dear." "Sweetheart." But the way they were said ... There was something missing. Humanity. Love. Call it whatever you want. The words were right, but they were completely wrong.
    "I don't know what I did," Melissa repeated. "Tell me, Fluffer McKitty. What did I do?"
    "What did I do, Fluffer?" she asked again. "Why don't they love me anymore?"
    Rachel (narrating) I felt like my own heart would break right then. Because I knew now why Melissa had stopped hanging out with me. I knew why she had become more withdrawn. And I knew how little hope there was for her.
    My stomach turned and twisted.
    Next time Marco asked why we were fighting the Yeerks, I knew I would have a whole new answer. Because they destroy the love of parents for their daughter. Because they made Melissa Chapman cry in her bed with no one to comfort her but a cat.
    Rachel (narrating) Melissa cried. And it came to me, like a vision: All the children all over, whose parents had been made into Controllers. And the parents whose children had been taken from them to be turned into Controllers. It was a terrible image. I wondered how it must feel to see your parents stop loving you.
    "You only have ten minutes to spare, Rachel," Jake said. "I hope it was worth scaring us all half to death. Did you at least discover something useful?"
    <Yes. I discovered plenty. I discovered that Chapman has a way to communicate directly with Visser Three. I discovered that Visser Three is pretty hot to catch us, although he still thinks we're Andalites. And I decided something, too.>
    "What?" Cassie asked me.
    I decided that I don't care what it takes, or how many risks I have to run. I don't care what happens to me. I hate these Yeerks. I hate them. I hate them. And I will find a way to stop them.>

## #3: The Encounter (1996)

    ISBN 0-590-62979-4
* I hated the way they all felt sorry for me. All they could see was that I was not what I used to be. All they saw was that I had no home. But they didn't really understand. I hadn't had a real home since my parents died. I was used to being alone. And I had the sky.
** pp. 18-19.
* "Look, these aren't people we know," Marco argued. "They aren't my friends. Or my family." He shot a guilty look at Jake. "And we did everything we could for Tom. So why should I get killed for strangers? We can't stay lucky forever. Sooner or later, we'll slip up. Sooner or later we'll be standing around here crying because Jake or Rachel or Cassie or Tobias is gone." "You know something?" Rachel exploded. "I'm tired of trying to talk you into this, Marco. You want out? Fine, you're OUT!" "Hey, Rachel, you're not just doing this to help save the human race," Marco yelled back. "You get off on the danger. That's why you went with Tobias to free that bird. That wasn't about saving the world. That was about rescuing some stupid bird."
** pp. 28-29.
* "Oh, come on, Marco," Cassie chided gently. "It's an opportunity to try out a new morph!" "Yeah," Jake chided. "Instead of being home doing math homework, you get to turn into a wolf. Are you going to tell me you'd rather be doing equations?" "Let's see," Marco considered. "Math? Or becoming a wolf and going off to find aliens? Maybe I should ask the school counselor what she thinks. It's such a common problem. I'm sure she'd have some good advice."
** p. 32.
* Be happy for me, and for all who fly free.
** p. 154.

## #4: The Message (1996)

    ISBN 0-590-62980-8
* Marco: No, I haven't had any weird dreams about the sea," Marco said. "I've had weird dreams about my sheets trying to strangle me. I've had weird dreams about falling from way up high and when I finally land I'm in Mister Rogers's Neighborhood talking to King Friday. I've had weird dreams about that woman on Baywatch... hmm, well, that does kind of involve the ocean, I guess.
* Rachel: You have dreams about King Friday?
* Marco: What's wrong with dreaming about King Friday?
* Rachel: Nothing, I was just going to say maybe you should see a counselor before your condition worsens.
** p. 14.
* "I figure this ship is going like, what, twenty miles per hour? Figure an hour, and that puts us twenty miles out, right?" Rachel pointed a finger at her forehead and said, "Jake's a total mathematical genius. One hour at twenty miles per hour. Right away he figures out that's twenty miles."
** p. 95.
* "How long until your people return to Earth?" I asked. He hesitated. <One of your years. Maybe two.> "Two years!" Jake looked stricken. I went to his side and slipped my arm through his. "Five kids against an enemy that has destroyed half the galaxy? Five of us?" Ax gave that smile, the one he did with his eyes. <Six, my Prince,> he said. "Six. Well then," Marco said with grim sarcasm, "with six it shouldn't be any problem."
** p. 119.

## #5: The Predator

    Marco: (narating) A month after the experience with the ants, I picked up a book about ants. The author said," If ants had nuclear weapons they would probably end the world in a week."
    He's wrong. It wouldn't take them that long.

## #6: The Capture

    Jake: (narrating) I was trying to decide something. I was trying to decide whether I would have to ever destroy him. Destroy my brother, who was not my brother. Not anymore.
    Jake: (to himself) Tom. My brother. Could I destroy my own brother? (out loud, to himself) You don't have to make that decision yet.
    Jake: Tom or no Tom, the Yeerks have to be stopped.
    Jake: (over the phone, with his voice disguised) Don't give up, Tom. Don't ever give up.
    Yeerk (in Jake's head): <So many species on this planet. So many balances and connections.> Everything preying on everything else. Every power is checked by some other power. Every advantage is canceled by some disadvantage.>

## #7: The Stranger

    Cassie: Hey, look! Over by that tree. See? A baby skunk with its mother.
    Marco: Let's run right over and pet them.
    Rachel: (to Tobias) Yeah. Look... I have a question for you. Do you ever think about years from now? Like when it's time for college and stuff? (regrets instantly)
    Tobias: (laughs) Yeah, I'm thinking I could get easy A's in ornithology -- the study of birds.
    Rachel: You could definitely be the professor. I just meant that sooner or later most of us are going to leave. Move somewhere else. What do we do then, if the Yeerks are still around?
    Tobias: I haven't really looked that far ahead. But I guess I figured the whole thing would sort itself out by then. The Yeerks win, and you don't have to worry about college. Or they lose, and we each go back to our normal lives. (dryly) Some of us more normal than others.
    Marco: This was always insane, right from the start. A handful of kids fighting an alien invasion? Look what's happening. Tobias is trapped in a morph. Rachel is starting to use morphing to get away from her problems. The other night I woke up in bed, and I didn't know what I was. I didn't know if I had hands or fins or claws or talons. Maybe you and Cassie are immune, Jake. But I doubt it.
    Jake: We can't give up.
    Marco: All we ever do is lose. We annoy the Yeerks. Maybe we blow up a ship, or have some little success. But the invasion marches on. And all we ever do is barely escape with our lives.
    Ellimist: (about earth) Look at it...In all the Universe, no greater beauty. In a thousand, thousand worlds, no greater art than this...Humans. Crude. Primitive. But capable of understanding.
    Ms. Paloma: Events are intertwined in ways we cannot always see, Cassie. Sometimes small things can make huge differences. You know, they say that a single butterfly beating its wings in China may make a tiny change that becomes a bigger change that becomes a tornado. The world isn't like math. It isn't just one plus one equals two. It's more complicated than that.
    Tobias: But how does the butterfly know when to beat its wings?
    Rachel: It doesn't. I guess it beats its wings the best it can, and hopes it will all work it. It's a butterfly. If just does what butterflies do.
    Marco: And what do we do, Xena, Warrior Princess?
    Rachel: (grinning) We kick Yeerk butt.
    Marco: (as a gorilla) Hi, I just came from a masquerade party, and I was looking for Visser Three.
    Guard: Andalite!
    Marco: Oh, so you are a Controller. Good. That makes it so much simpler.

## Megamorphs #1: The Andalite's Gift

    Cassie: Aaaaaaaahhhhh!
    Jake: Look out! Lookoutlookoutlookoutlookout!
    Marco: Would you both shut up? I'm trying to drive here!
    Jake: Car! Car! Car!
    Marco: (yanks wheel left)
    Driver: (speeds by, blares horn, and flips Marco off)
    Marco: That's rude. And totally uncalled for.
    BAM!
    Cassie: Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!
    Marco: Oh, it's just a trash can. Chill out.
    BAM! BAM! BAM!
    Marco: Okay, so it's four trash cans.
    Jake: Get off the sidewalk, you lunatic!
    Marco: (yanks wheel right, bumps the sidewalk, grazes a parked car)
    BAM! BAM! BAM!
    Jake: Do you hate trash cans? Is that your problem? Do you just HATE TRASH CANS?!!
    Marco: I can't drive with you screaming in my ear.
    Jake: You can't drive at all!

## #8: The Alien (1997)

    ISBN 0-590-99728-9
* An Andalite may think that humans are simple, open, trusting creatures. But they are more subtle than they seem to be at first. Possibly this is because of their spoken language, where no one word ever means just one thing. —From the Earth Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
** p. 60.
* "Hello?" I turned around. It was an older human. He was paler than Marco, but other features were similar. Marco had warned me to say nothing to his father but "yes" and "no." "No," I said to Marco's father. "I'm Marco's dad. Are you a friend of his?" "Yes." "What's your name?" "No," I answered. "Your name is 'No'?" "Yes." "That's an unusual name, isn't it?" "No." "It's not?" "Yes." "Yes, it's not an unusual name?" "No." "Now I'm totally confused." "Yes." Marco's father stared at me. Then, in a loud voice he yelled, "Hey, Marco? Marco? Would you... um... your friend is here. Your friend 'No' is here." "No," I said. "Yes, that's what I said." Marco came running down the stairs. "Whoa!" he cried. "Um, Dad! You met my friend?" "No?" Marco's father said. "What?" Marco asked. Marco's father shook his head. "I must be getting old. I don't understand you kids." "Yes," I offered.
** pp. 65-66.
* "Give me liberty or give me death." A human named Patrick Henry said that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew before they came to conquer Earth that humans said things like that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew what they were getting into. —From the Earth Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
** p. 151.

## #9: The Secret

* <Are skunks a sacred animal to humans?> Ax asked. "All animals are sacred to Cassie," Marco said. "She's Doctor Dolittle and that animal guy who comes on Letterman all rolled into one." <But you eat some animals,> Ax pointed out. <Cows, pigs, sheep, dogs.> "We don't eat dogs!" I said. <In some countries you do. I read it in the World Almanac.> We had given Ax a World Almanac to help him learn about Earth. Ever since then, he'd become an expert on useless information. He could tell you you the per capita income of Tanzania, or the long jump record at the Olympics. "Well, we don't eat dogs in this country," Rachel said. <Do you eat cats?> "Um...excuse me?" Jake interrupted.

## #10: The Android

    Erek: How do you... how do you live with the memory?
    Marco: (shrugs) I guess I try not to think about it. I try and forget. And after a while, the nightmares don't happen as much.
    Erek: (puts a finger to his head) Android. (smiles bitterly) I can't forget. See? I can never forget... anything.
    Marco: I'm sorry.
    Erek: (nods) Yes. (holds out clenched fist, palm down)
    Marco: (holds out hand and takes the Pemalite crystal, even though he doesn't want it)
    Erek: I've changed my programming back. We... I... maybe at times I can tell you things. Information. But I'll never fight again. I can't join this war, my friend.

## #11: The Forgotten

    Jake: It was a disaster down there, Ax. I blew it. The only reason we're all still alive is that in the end, I got lucky.
    Ax: Maybe that is true, Prince Jake. But my brother Elfangor once told me, "It's a leader's job to be lucky." Sometimes, success is just luck.
    Jake: (nods) Elfangor's luck ran out.
    Ax: Yes. We must hope yours does not, Prince Jake.
    Jake: (laughs) Don't call me 'Prince.'
    Ax: Yes, Prince Jake.

## The Andalite Chronicles (1997)

    ISBN 0-590-10971-5
* I, Elfangor, was going to become a great warrior, a prince, a hero.
* <An exo-datologist, eh?> Alloran said with a slight sneer. <The new ideal: warrior, scientist, artist. It's not enough to be a fighter anymore, eh? They want a gentler, more balanced, more intellectual sort of warrior nowadays.>
Arbron looked helplessly at me.