The Pretender (Animorphs #23)

Tobias the human-turned-hawk is struggling with his identity- boy trapped in a hawk body . . . Two main things happen in this book: Tobias finds out that someone is looking for him, a woman claiming to be a cousin who wants to take him in- as family. This is a strong lure for Tobias in his moments of wishing to be human again, but he's suspicious. Something doesn't seem right about the situation. Meanwhile, there's a young Hork-Bajir gone missing from the hidden valley where the free aliens live, and of course the Animorphs get involved in a plan to find him before the Yeerks do Turns out he's in a shabby roadside zoo- so there's stuff about Cassie's outrage at how the animals are treated, Rachel's eagerness to plow through the place show more and destroy it all. Tobias is involved as lookout from the sky, as usual, where he sees something that clues him in to the true identity of the woman claiming to be his cousin. There's also revelations in this episode about Tobias' background, why his father had disappeared, etc. But really what I liked best about it was all the stuff from the hawk perspective, how Tobias felt about certain things, how he had forgotten a lot of human mannerisms from being a bird of prey so long, so when he was in human form to meet his so-called cousin, he had to put on an act, which really turned out to be for the best. That scene where he's sitting in a lawyer's office next to an enemy in disguise and confronted with some shocking information but his hawk nature enabled him to appear unconcerned and avoid blowing his cover- very intense.

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More implausibilities, conveniences, etc. than many. But also more lessons to be learned, by characters and by readers. These books have it all: adventure, mystery, humor, heart, and philosophy.

"Humans killed one another over skin color or eye shape or because they prayed differently to the same god. Hard to imagine humans welcoming 7 foot tall goblins into the local Boy Scout troop when they couldn't even manage to tolerate some gay kid."

"It suddenly occurred to me, right then, for the first time, that what I thought was so unique about me-that I was half instinctive predator and half human being-wasn't so unique after all. Every human... kind of lives on that edge between savage and saint."

A bit more serious and intense than some of the others in the series. I mean, as serious as a book about a child stuck in a hawks body can be I guess.

Fun fluff series that gets less and less fluff over time.

A short comment for every book of the series until I get a chance to re-read them. All three of my sons and I loved this series and read every single book - I even bought every single book (most, but not all, used; some through school book sales). I'm excited to re-read them to see how the five main characters develop and to watch all the different transformations again.

Animorphs was a good series that kept me reading. Enjoyed these as a kid.

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