The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by K.A. Applegate

Title: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
Series: Animorphs (book 22.5)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Length: 206 pages

The Story

This book is a sort of prequel to the Animorphs series, much like The Andalite Chronicles. It is the story of how the Yeerks came to the Hork-Bajir home world in search of hosts they could use to fight the Andalites. The main characters are Dak Hamee, a Hork-Bajir seer who is more intelligent than the rest of his species, Aldrea, a young Andalite girl, and Esplin 9466, a Yeerk who will do anything to gain more power.

When the Yeerks attack, Aldrea calls to her people for help, but the Andalites send too little too late, leaving the gentle Hork-Bajir to desperately defend themselves.

My Thoughts

Readers of the Animorphs series already know how things end for the Hork-Bajir. In the present day when the main series takes place, the Hork-Bajir are used as hosts for the Yeerks. This makes the story sad to read, since we know all along they aren't going to be successful. It's also sad because we see a darker side of the Andalites, who are supposed to be the good guys. K.A. Applegate is great at showing that moral issues aren't always black and white. Still, the story ends on a hopeful note, with a promising future for the new free Hork-Bajir.

If you're reading the main series, don't skip this book! There's lots of backstory on the Hork-Bajir, the Andalites, and the Yeerks. Events of this book are also mentioned in the next Animorphs book (#23 - The Pretender).

The Warning (Animorphs #16) by K.A. Applegate

Title: The Warning
Series: Animorphs (book 16)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Length: 146 pages

Warning: This is a review of book 16 of the series, so watch out for spoilers of earlier books! The first book in the series is The Invasion, which I reviewed on my adult book blog here.

The Story

Jake discovers a website about yeerks. Some of the information seems pretty accurate, while some is way out there. But the most interesting part of the site is the chat room. People are chatting about yeerks, swapping information, some of them obviously yeerks in disguise, others potential allies to the Animorphs. So they decide to break into the ISP's offices to find out who the people behind those screen names are.

My Thoughts

The Animorphs books always involve the kids coming up with a plan, and some of their plans make more sense than others. Breaking into the office of an internet service provider to find out who some people in a chat room are does not strike me as a very smart plan. But other than that, I liked the plot of this book. The Animorphs face another big moral question, and those always make for the best stories in this series. There are also the usual cool fight scenes and moments of suspense.

The Animorphs series is great for elementary school kids who are striking out on their own with chapter books. Because there are so many of them, they can keep reading about the same characters and seeing them grow, like in a longer novel, but in bite-sized chunks. The reading level is probably a bit above the really early chapter books. There are lots of animal-alien fight scenes, but the violence is not gratuitous.