The Andaliteʼs Gift (Animorphs Megamorphs #1)

It's vacation time. Rachel is supposed to go to gymnastics camp, but she decides to skip it without telling her family, so no one knows where she is. Flying as an eagle, she gets mobbed by smaller birds, crashes into a tree and suffers amnesia for much of the story. Having lost her memory causes a lot of fear and confusion discovering she could be part bird, and later being shocked into turning into a grizzly bear. She stumbles across a shack in the woods where a crazy lady lives, who from her raving and strange reactions to things, appears to have once hosted a Yeerk.

Meanwhile, Marco and Ax crash a pool party- chasing the girls as mice. They attract the attention of a new threat- a dangerous swarm of tiny sentient alien creatures that show more can shred anything in its path. They figure out how to decoy it using their morphing ability- and end up in a hilarious car chase. Rachel in her elephant morph, crashes and recovers from her amnesia with the second knock on the head (a bit too conveniently). The alien swarm (bystanders assume it's a tornado) proves it can capture them- Ax and Marco get taken to the enemy ship. Here I was confounded at the actions of Visser Three. Terribly ruthless, yes. But not so smart. I don't know why he would explain things so readily to Ax and Marco- except to relish in his superiority, and of course it helps the story along. Anyhow, they quickly come up with a clever escape move, and together with the Animorphs back on the ground, find a way to defeat the swarm creature. With the help of a new morph- Cassie turns into a whale.

Interestingly, in this book quite a few times the kids get stuck mid-morph, while they are a strange and awkward combination of human and animal form. They keep remarking how horrible it is, but find a way to deliberately remain in this in-between state when it is advantageous. Compared to prior reads, this book was stuffed with action, had enough new ideas to keep me alert, and peppered with humor. A bit much of the ridiculous alien fights, but considering the premise it's to be expected. I rolled my eyes a few times... Side note: while the kids find turning into small insects like ants, roaches or fleas disorientating and frightening, they happen to enjoy being a housefly, because of the speed and dexterity in flight. Which comes in very handy in this story, too.

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Spring 2020 (Feb / Animorphs Read 2020);

It’s strange. A normal series book takes me 51 minutes to read (my time for our other book this week), so I expected this to take longer, but it ranked in at just around an hour, but I think I get why.

This book felt incredibly more simplistic compared to even the normal middle-grade reads of the other ones. The POV chapter were incredibly small bites. I was really kind of chomping at the bit of restlessness that Cassie didn’t get any POV chapters until after the 50% mark, and then Rachel got almost nothing at the point of her remembering things.

My love for Rachel remains forever (and I loved her even in her amnesiac self). My fondness my Cassie & Jake together super holds. My opinion of show more Marco, as my least favorite character and the pinnacle of the type of person (child and adult) I, personally, avoid at all costs, only formed up even further with the whole pool fiasco, in the past and in the present.

Also, I remain steadfastly certain that so far in the series the whales are my favorite animals and I love when they show up. The way they act, what they “say” without saying. show less

I remember thinking this volume was the best of the series so far when I was a kid, but it didn't hold up as well this time around. A character getting amnesia at the beginning felt like a soap opera plot, and the baddies' super weapon was kind of ineffective in the end. Overall, it just didn't grab me.

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.

I figured out the Veleek was attracted by morphing right away.

this is a great book.