Wild Things: YA Grown-Up discussion

Confession time: When I was younger (and I'm not talking THAT young--I was 17 when the last book came out), I used to LOVE the Animorphs series. We actually had a whole circle of kids at my Church reading them... We never discussed the books in public--it was like a secret little group... I would go to the bookstore every month to buy the latest book, and pretend I was buying it for my little brother... hahaha... It was so silly!

Anyone else want to confess?

K.A. Applegate (where the K is for Katharine), so close! She wrote another one called... Everworld or something like that... And apparently a series called Making Out, Remnants, Ocean City, Making Waves... Wow. She's written a lot.

Not that I'm interested in reading any of them after the freaking Animorphs series ended... Grrr...

This was another series I started reading because my younger brother liked them so much, so in effect I was also "too old" for them, Sara. :) (I'm 8 years older than him.) Unfortunately it was towards the end of their popularity, so I didn't get to read most of the series. I did read and enjoy her Everworld series, though, and I have since lent that one to my brother.

How was that series?

I thought it was really clever. Definitely a lot of humor, and a different look at the deities of the various mythological pantheons, who are characters in the books. The Percy Jackson series reminds me of it a little, the way the gods get portrayed.

Does the series end well?

Hmmm. I read them 7 or 8 years ago and even though I read them a few times I don't recall a lot of the details. What I do remember is that I really liked the series. Sorry, I guess that doesn't help much. I've been meaning to re-read but my brother has most of them at my mom's house.

I just ask because I hated the ending to Animorphs. I loved the first 53 books, plus all the extra books she threw in here and there... but that last one...

K.A. Applegate nearly ruined series for me. I didn't ever want to put so much time and effort into reading books if the ending was going to be THAT BAD!

That's really disappointing. I read maybe a total of 10 Animorphs books, more or less, so I never even got close to the end. Can you send me a message telling me how it ends? You've got me curious now!

Everworld was only 8 or 10 short books. Not as huge of an investment.

Another series my daughter loved when she was about 10 or 11. She spent a whole summer reading mainly these and Magic Tree House books. Alas, I did not read either. However, We had fun scavenging thrift stores and used book stores trying to get them all. Now they've all been traded for more adventures and fantasy just lining the shelves.

Alexis wrote: "That's really disappointing. I read maybe a total of 10 Animorphs books, more or less, so I never even got close to the end. Can you send me a message telling me how it ends? You've got me curious now!"

I can't--your profile is set to private. HOWEVER, since I really doubt anyone on here is going to be reading them....... Here's what happens at the end of Book 54....

********SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!!*********













(From memory....) Rachel sacrifices herself to kill Visser 3 (now Visser 1) and take down the Yeerks... Cassie and Jake break up... Tobias becomes a recluse... etc., etc., etc. And then in the final scene Jake, Ax, Marco, and Tobias take off on a special mission, which is basically a suicide mission..... And it's just stupid. There's more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Begi..., except I swear half of that stuff is made up, as I don't remember it at all. Well, it's VAGUELY familiar... I dunno.

"...And it was all a dream!"

Because that's really all it's missing.

EXACTLY!

I was so upset, I wanted to read the Animorph's series now but none of the libraries around me have them. I would go look for them at bookstore's but I don't have the money! :(.

I think the only place you'd find them is at used bookstores, but you would likely have good luck buying bunches of them on eBay.

Oh, Sarah, we had a ton of these until about a month ago when my dd took them to a used book store. I would have gladly sent them to you. They sat on my PBS shelf for a long time first. They are out there so call around to used stores like Alexis said.

I can't believe your library doesn't have them! But yes, they're at used bookstores (cuz everyone gets rid of them...)

Yeah... my used bookstore doesn't have the first one :(.

Great series! Read them years ago, loved them!

I don't specifically remember the DNA-from-a-dying-seal thing, but yes, the kids/teens "acquire" animal DNA and then can morph into that animal.

"Magic Tree House books" Both my sons are reading this series. My oldest (10 yo) has picked up a few of the Animorphs at charity stores, but I don't think he has read them yet. I might try read them, not the whole series, but a few. I have read most of the Magic Tree house series and have lead five book discussions using books from the Magic Tree House series.

They're really great books... I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the series (other than the last book)... enough to risk extreme embarrassment to read them! After all, I was a self-conscious 16-year-old girl going to the bookstore where hot college guys worked and buying them... haha! I used to be like, "Oh yeah... I'm buying this for my little brother..." and the checker would look at me like, "Yeah. Right. Nice try, there, girlie!"