Frankly, of all the YA sci-fi I read when I belonged to that demographic, I think that Animorphs was the one that held me the most. The depth in the books grew with each entry in the series, and as things went on, you began to realize that K.A. Applegate was teaching us a very important lesson - you can never go back. Whatever you want to use the Yeerks as a metaphor for (sex, rape, alien invaders from another world), once you learn about them, you can never go back. You'll never look at another person again and not wonder if they're one of the enemy.That painful realization, and the grand adventure that led to it is the best recommendation I can give. This was, like, 1/10th of my childhood. That may not seem like much now in 2014, but back then, it was a huge chunk of MY WORLD. Granted, if I read it now I might have trouble getting through the simplistic language… (Disclaimer: simplistic language itself isn't bad--but simplistic language as usually used in MG and YA books can grate on my nerves and seriously get in the way of enjoying the story)But you cannot deny the heavy themes (I think Animorphs addresses its themes much better than some contemporary hits I will not name) nor the trope riffs that make it seem pretty progressive for a MG book back then.
What do You think about Animorphs (1997)?
A quintessential part of my childhook, pretty sure I read each one of these multiple times.
—JoshuaL
Brilliant series, what first got me into reading, nearly a decade ago.
—books
Dude, animorphs was the shit when we were kids.
—ash
