Animorphs: The Invasion by K. A. Applegate

Animorphs chronicles the battles of five human teenagers and one alien youth as they fight a guerrilla war against a secret alien infiltration of Earth. The series is told in the first person, with a different narrator in every book. Applegate cycles through the books' six protagonists, telling the story of their secret war through each of the combatants' perspective. By using this method, she explores many of the dark aspects of the human condition. Horror, war, dehumanization, sanity, morality, innocence, leadership, and growing up are core motifs of the series. In the first book, The Invasion, the narrator is Jake, the leader of the Animorphs group. This book provides a solid foundation for the series as it begins to explain the plot and the characters.

In The Invasion, Jake and the other four teenagers come in contact with aliens who tell them that Earth is being invaded by another race of aliens, called the Yeerks. The Andalite alien gives the children powers to be able to absorb DNA from animals. Once they do this, the teenagers have the ability to morph into that animal—hence the name, Animorphs (Animal morphers.) When they are in animal form, they only have two hours until they have to morph back or they are trapped forever in animal form. Right before the book finishes, the readers find out that one the five main characters, Tobias, is forever trapped in the morph of a red-tailed hawk because he was unable to de-morph in time from the fight the night before.

This series provides an interesting and engaging adventure for upper elementary-age kids. The content can be a bit violent for younger children. I read them as a kid one after another once my brother would finish them. These books are the kinds that are difficult to put down. Luckily, there are fifty-three more in the regular series.