The Invasion, published in June 1996 and written by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, is the first book in the Animorphs series. It is the first book narrated by Jake.

Synopsis

Plot

On a Friday night, teenager Jake and his best friend Marco are walking home from the mall when they are joined by Tobias, a boy from school with no proper family life, as well as Jake's cousin Rachel and her friend Cassie. While cutting through an abandoned construction site, the five teens notice an alien spaceship landing in front of them. Emerging from the fighter ship is a dying blue alien called an Andalite, named Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, who telepathically informs the children that another group of aliens known as Yeerks have already begun infiltrating Earth. Elfangor explains that the Yeerks are parasitic slugs who need a host body, and that by entering through someone's ear, they can take over their brain and control them, becoming Controllers in the process; additionally, there are already Controllers on Earth. In order to help them fight off the Yeerks since the Andalites will not come to Earth for at least a year's time, Elfangor uses a blue box to give the children the power to morph — by touching any animal, they can permanently acquire its DNA into their body and then become that animal for two hours at a time. However, if they stay in morph for over two hours, then they would be permanently be stuck in that animal's body.

The kids then witness as the Yeerks arrive on the site in a Blade ship, followed with two Bug fighters, and the kids encounter the two primary host bodies used by the Yeerks: green seven-foot-tall bladed creatures known as Hork-Bajir and giant yellow centipede-like creatures known as Taxxons. They watch in horror as Visser Three, the only Andalite-Controller in history and thus the only Controller with the morphing ability, transforms into a giant alien and eats Elfangor alive, killing him. The kids then run and are chased by the Yeerks, although they manage to successfully escape.

The next morning, Tobias visits Jake's house to share that he successfully morphed into his pet cat, which results in Jake testing out the power for himself by acquiring and morphing into Homer, his pet dog. Jake then arranges for them to all meet at Cassie's farm, where they discover that Cassie has morphed into one of her horses and that she even incorporated a morphing outfit to avoid nudity while demorphing, a problem Tobias and Jake had run into earlier. Just at that moment, a police cruiser drives up to them, and while Cassie successfully manages to demorph in time, she earns the suspicion of the policeman, whom the kids realize is a Controller. The cop interrogates them whether they know of any kids that were at the construction site the night before, and recommends that they join a group known as The Sharing before leaving.

Jake and Marco then go to Jake's house to play video games when Jake's brother Tom also inquires about children who might have been at the construction site. Tom then invites them to join The Sharing as well, causing Marco to realize that Tom has been taken over by a Yeerk. Tobias then arrives in a newly acquired red-tailed hawk morph and notifies them that Elfangor shared a key piece of information with him before his demise — in order to survive, a Yeerk must return to a Yeerk pool every three days and exit their host body so that they can feed on Kandrona rays. In order to verify their suspicions, the five kids attend a beach bonfire held by The Sharing, where Jake discovers that Tom is indeed a host body to the Yeerks, along with their school's assistant principal Chapman; Jake also overhears "Tom" mentioning that he would be returning to the Yeerk pool on Monday night for a feeding. Although Jake is able to get away with his eavesdropping because he morphed into his dog, Cassie tries to spy in her human form and is caught by the same policeman from earlier that day, although he lets her go. Jake then decides to continue spying on Chapman for further intel and acquires a green anole lizard with Cassie's help.

On Monday, Jake skips class and morphs into the lizard in his school locker in order to spy on Chapman. Intending to go to Chapman's office, he instead finds Chapman in the hallway and follows him; Chapman leads him to the janitor's closet, where he reveals a secret retractable wall that leads into the Yeerk pool. Regrouping with his friends, Jake tells them that he will be going into the Yeerk pool that night to save Tom while his Yeerk is feeding. While the other Animorphs are eager to join the cause, Marco is reluctant to risk his life since he believes his father, who became depressed after his mother's death, would stop living if Marco also died. Despite this, Marco agrees to join the rescue mission in order to save Tom. As they officially form a team, Marco names them "Animorphs."

The Animorphs then visit The Gardens, the local zoo/amusement park combo where Cassie's mother works. Marco acquires a Silverback gorilla, although the group is then forced to split up when zoo security notices them being in a restricted area. While fleeing, Jake and Marco end up in the Siberian tiger enclosure, where Jake acquires a tiger morph. Reuniting with the others, they all decide to go home for dinner before planning to meet up in front of the school that night. After dinner, Jake calls Cassie, only to reach her mother, who tells him that Cassie is not at home and that she missed dinner. Jake then heads to school, where he is angered to find out that Tobias has already started his two-hour morph countdown by turning into the red-tailed hawk prematurely. Despite this, the four Animorphs enter the school and are shocked to see the cop Controller dragging Cassie through the janitor's closet and into the Yeerk pool.

The kids follow suit, and as they descend into the pool, they are stunned to see how massive the underground Yeerk pool complex is while also simultaneously disturbed by the sounds of humans screaming and pleading as they are tossed into cages while their Yeerks feed. The Animorphs then assume their battle morphs — Jake as a tiger, Marco as a gorilla and Rachel as an elephant — and attack the Yeerks. Successfully freeing all the hosts from their cages and preventing Cassie from being infested, they are impeded by Visser Three, who correctly deduces that they are morphs, but believes them to be Andalites since only they possess the morphing ability. Visser Three then morphs into a giant creature with eight heads and eight limbs that can shoot fireballs and incinerates many of the freed hosts. The Animorphs attempt to flee through the stairway they came from, but find their path blocked by a wall of fire. Tom, who is with the Animorphs, charges at the Visser, but Visser Three just knocks him off the stairs, causing Jake to briefly attack Visser Three in fury.

The Animorphs, minus Tobias, successfully escape from the Yeerk pool, with the only prisoner they saved being a woman who was riding on Cassie's back, as Cassie had morphed into a horse. The Animorphs split up and go home, and Jake goes to bed, shaking and crying due to the terror he experienced that night. Hours later, he is awakened by Tobias, who flies into his room. Tobias informs him that while he was able to escape from the Yeerk pool, he had to stay out of sight for over two hours and thus is now trapped in the body of a red-tailed hawk. Looking up at the stars, Jake decides to keep fighting the Yeerks until the Andalites can save them.

Appearances

Protagonists

• Jake (First Appearance)
• Rachel (First Appearance)
• Tobias (First Appearance)
• Cassie (First Appearance)
• Marco (First Appearance)

Supporting Characters

• Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul (First Appearance) (Death)

Antagonists

• Esplin 9466 (Visser Three) (First Appearance)
  • Alloran-Semitur-Corrass (First Physical Appearance) (Body)
• Iniss 226 (Chapman's Yeerk) (First Appearance)
  • Hedrick Chapman (First Appearance) (Body)
• Temrash 114 (Tom's Yeerk) (First Appearance)
  • Tom (First Appearance)
• Various Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and human-Controllers (First Appearance)

Other Characters

• Steve (First Appearance)
• Jean (First Appearance)
• Michelle (Voice)
• Homer (First Appearance)
• Big Jim (Only Appearance)

Locations

• California, United States (First Appearance)
  • Mall (First Appearance)
  • Abandoned Construction Site (First Appearance)
  • Berenson Residence (First Appearance)
  • Cassie's Farm (First Appearance)
    • Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic (First Appearance)
    • Cassie's House (Mentioned)
  • Junior High School (First Appearance)
  • The Gardens (First Appearance)
  • Underground Yeerk Pool Complex (First Appearance)
  • High School (Mentioned)
  • Tobias' Uncle's House (Mentioned)
  • Naomi's House (Mentioned)
• Z-space (Mentioned)
• Andalite homeworld (Mentioned)
• Yeerk homeworld (Indirectly Mentioned)
• Europe (Mentioned)
• Africa (Mentioned)
• Siberia (Mentioned)
• Empire State Building (Mentioned)
• Tokyo (Mentioned)

Organizations

• Animorphs (First Appearance)
• Yeerk Empire (First Appearance)
  • The Sharing (First Appearance)
  • Police Department (First Appearance)
• The Gardens (First Appearance)
• United States Army (Mentioned)
• United States Marines (Mentioned)

Items

• Andalite fighter (First Appearance)
  • Elfangor's fighter (First Appearance)
• Escafil device (First Appearance)
• Bug fighters (First Appearance)
• Blade ship (First Appearance)
• Dracon beams (First Appearance)
• Dome ship (Mentioned)
  • GalaxyTree (Indirectly Mentioned)
• Pool ship (Mentioned)
• Kandrona (Mentioned)
  • Kandrona rays (Mentioned)

Other Mentions

Characters

• Dude
• Loren
• Tobias' Aunt
• Tobias' Uncle
• Eva
• Peter
• Walter

References

• Sega
• Storm
• X-Men
• Phasers
• Star Trek
• Bill Clinton
• Late Show with David Letterman
  • David Letterman
• Jell-O
• Presto SaladShooter
• Purina
• Superman
• Boy Scouts of America
• Fantastic Four
• Nike
• Birkenstock
• King Kong vs. Godzilla
• Tarzan
• Frankenstein's monster
• Super Bowl
• Caterpillar Inc.
• King Kong
• Godzilla

Major/Highlighted Events

• The five main characters are introduced: Jake is a teenager who is playing video games at the mall on a Friday night with Marco, his childhood best friend. He and Marco walk home, along with Jake's cousin Rachel and her best friend Cassie, the latter of whom Jake is romantically interested in. Joining them is Tobias, a kid they don't know very well who Jake recently saved from some bullies. The five kids cut through an abandoned construction site and encounter a blue alien — an Andalite Prince named Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.
• Elfangor notifies the kids of the Andalite-Yeerk War and the subsequent invasion of Earth. He explains that Earth is under attack by a parasitic alien slug-like species known as Yeerks, who crawl inside the ears of other species and then take over their bodies, becoming Controllers. He informs them that the Yeerk Empire have conquered the Taxxons as well as the Hork-Bajir, using the latter as shock troops, and have begun infesting humans as well. Elfangor discloses that it may take a year or more until Andalite forces arrive, and so asks them to fight the Yeerk Empire until then.
• Using a blue box, Elfangor grants Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco the power to morph — by touching any animal, they can permanently acquire its DNA and then become that animal for two hours at a time. However, he warns them that if they stay in morph for longer than two hours, they would be permanently trapped in that animal's body.
• The five kids encounter Visser Three, the only Andalite-Controller in the Yeerk Empire, and watch as he devours and kills Elfangor.
• It is revealed that Jake's older brother Tom as well as their assistant principal, Chapman, have been infested by Yeerks.
  • Tom's infestation gives Jake his personal reason for fighting in the war, as he wishes to free his brother.
• Tobias acquires a red-tailed hawk, a body he begins to prefer to his own.
• Tobias discloses that Elfangor transferred information and memories mentally to him prior to his death, and thus the Animorphs discover that the Yeerks have a massive weakness – every three days, the Yeerks must return to a Yeerk pool and leave their host bodies in order to feed off of Kandrona rays.
• Cassie is revealed to possess an innate ability to control the morphing process.
• Jake is chosen, albeit not of his own accord, as the unofficial leader of the team.
• The kids, calling themselves Animorphs, acquire battle morphs at The Gardens.
  • Marco acquires his signature Silverback gorilla morph.
  • Jake acquires his signature Siberian tiger morph.
  • Rachel acquires her signature African elephant morph.
• The Animorphs discover that the local Yeerk pool is in a giant underground cavern underneath half of their city.
• The Animorphs infiltrate the underground Yeerk pool complex or the first time and also have their first combat experience against Controllers, specifically against human-Controllers, Hork-Bajir-Controllers, and Taxxons. They also have their first battle against Visser Three, who believes them to be Andalites in morph.
• Most of the Animorphs escape from the underground Yeerk pool complex, having failed to rescue Tom or any of the other victims except for one older woman. Tobias, who was left behind, ends up hiding and staying in morph for more than two hours, and while he eventually manages to escape, he is now permanently trapped in the body of a red-tailed hawk.

Morphs

• While Jake's pet dog Homer is not identified to be a golden retriever in this book, although a later book confirms it.
• This book does not specify which type of elephant Rachel acquired; the next book clarifies that it was an African elephant.
• Jake states that Rachel, Tobias, and Cassie "had just gone on acquiring morphs," indicating that Cassie and Tobias also acquired morphs at The Gardens. The next book confirms that Rachel was the only one of the three who had acquired a morph at the zoo, and that she had only acquired the elephant.

Trivia

• The cover quote is, "Some people never change. Some do..."
• The inside front cover quote is, "Jake is changing..."
• The five Animorphs are thirteen years old during the events of this book, as revealed in The Answer.
• This book is set in 1997, as indicated through the timeline of The Andalite Chronicles and The Hork-Bajir Chronicles.
• This was the first and only book cover to show eight stages of a morph; starting with the following book (and beyond) only five stages were used. This book's cover, along with that of The Visitor, are the only book covers to show the faces of the characters morphing, rather than the full body. However, in both cases, the flipbook morph at the bottom of the pages shows a full body, side view of the cover morph.
• Jake, Rachel, and Marco had not yet learned how to morph clothing by the time they attacked the Yeerk Pool, which was on the same day Rachel and Marco acquired their first morphs, and thus would've been nude when they demorphed. The graphic novel rectifies this by giving the Animorphs a day between acquiring their morphs and attacking the pool as well as adding a new scene where Rachel, Jake and Marco are confirmed to have learned how to morph clothing in the interim.
• Jake acquires a green anole lizard, but never uses it again for the rest of the series.
• The Japanese publication of this book had a distinct sketched cover, and six black-and-white sketches inside.
• The 2011 re-release had new covers for the American books, as well as the French and Brazilian books (for the first few books in the series, that is). The Brazilian version was published by Fundamento and features an entirely distinct cover design.^[1]
• One of the Animorphs Jigsaw Puzzles features a scene depicting the final battle in the Yeerk Pool at the end of this book, where Jake, in tiger morph, fights Visser Three, morphed as an Unnamed Creature with Eight Heads and Eight Limbs.
• A Jake/Lizard morphing fast food toy was made by Taco Bell in 1999, based on this book's cover morph.
• ANIBASE: "Michael (her husband/co-writer) and I were living in an apartment complex in Sarasota, FL. It was so hot all the time that we could only exercise at night, taking walks around the apartment complex. We'd written some YA romances by then but they weren't selling. Michael and I were arguing about what to do next. I was halfway convinced we should abandon series writing altogether. Michael was half convinced we should give up on kid's books, but felt that if we stayed in, we should try one more series. We both agreed that we'd had it with YA, so we decided on a middle reader series. I wanted to write about animals -- to put kids into the heads of animals somehow. And right there, as we lapped past the dumpster, we got part one of the equation: kids turning into animals. Then we realized we needed some jeopardy. Michael pointed out that if we were basically creatiing comic book characters with superpowers, we needed villains worthy of them. That added the alien invasion element. So, Animorphs was born on a hot summer night beside a dumpster in Florida."
• ANIBASE: "In the original manuscript for this book, back before a proposed trilogy called "Changelings" became the Animorphs series, Jake was named Matt and had a little brother named Joseph. Cassie didn't exist at all! Good thing for Rachel this was changed later on -- she would have been totally outnumbered by the guys. Of course knowing Rachel, she would have handled it just fine."
• ANIBASE: "So what exactly IS the deal with Jake thought-speaking to Tobias while human, even though every other book says that's impossible? The answer's pretty basic: K. A. Applegate changed her mind about how thought-speaking works and forgot to change that part of the book. What a mistake -- Animorph fans have been hounding her about it ever since!"
• ANIBASE: "Originally, Andalites were described as looking like the basic big head, big eyes, little body, tiny slit-for-a-mouth aliens with beige skin that you see everywhere. K.A. was trying to be nice, she says, because she figured at some point there would be a TV show or a movie based on the books, and she wanted to make aliens that could be created on a modest special effects budget. But Jean Feiwel, a Senior Vice President at Scholastic and the editor who read and bought the proposal for Animorphs, told Katherine Applegate that the aliens were too cliche. Stung by criticism, K.A. thought, "Fine, I'll show you!" and created the totally unique, hard-to-create-for-a-TV-show, blue-furred, centaur-like scorpion-tailed aliens that we all know and love. As K.A. puts it, "It was kind of a 'so there' moment.""

Goofs/Inconsistencies

• When Jake enters Elfangor's ship, he sees a photo of four Andalites and describes two of them as "very small kids." Jake then asks Elfangor if the picture is of his family, which Elfangor confirms. The two "very small kids" in the photo cannot be Elfangor and his younger brother Aximili, as Aximili was born when Elfangor was already an adult. This would indicate that the picture may be of Elfangor's own family. However, subsequent books in the series, specifically those narrated by Ax or revolving around Elfangor's legacy, never mention Elfangor having an Andalite family of his own.
• When attempting to quickly educate the kids, Elfangor merely states that the Taxxons are evil. However, Elfangor learned in The Andalite Chronicles that the Andalite preconception of Taxxons being evil because they willingly submitted themselves to slavery was not entirely true. This remark is retained in both the reprints and the graphic novel.
• Visser Three treats Elfangor as if they've never met before. However, in The Andalite Chronicles, it is established that Elfangor knows both the Yeerk (Esplin 9466) and his host Alloran-Semitur-Corrass very well. This is fixed in the reprint, where Visser Three instead remarks that it is nice to see Elfangor again.
• Elfangor warns the kids to not direct their thoughts to Visser Three or he'd hear them. However, humans must be in morph to use thought-speak. This is fixed in the reprint.
• During the Visser's tirade towards Elfangor, the latter can still hear the Animorphs whispering behind the construction junk. However, if Andalite ears can hear that well, the Visser should have been able to hear them as well.
  • Additionally, Elfangor mentions that Hork-Bajir have very good hearing, yet the Hork-Bajir between Elfangor and the kids cannot hear them whispering.
• Tobias tells Jake that he morphed his cat Dude the night before, although not before his cat sliced his finger. Tobias then places his finger in his mouth, indicating that his finger is still sliced. However, in the next chapter, it is stated that morphing fixes injuries since it is DNA based, meaning that Tobias' sliced finger would have been healed when he demorphed. This is fixed in the reprint, where the description of Tobias putting his sliced finger in his mouth is removed.
• Jake uses thought-speak to communicate with Tobias even though he is not in morph. This is fixed in the reprint.
• After Jake morphs into his dog, Homer, Jake has Homer's memory about Streak. However, one cannot acquire the morph's memories.
• When Jake morphs into his dog, he mentions that his knees reversed directions. However, dogs do not have knees in the opposite direction. This is fixed in the reprint.
• While at the beach bonfire night hosted by The Sharing, Tobias, who is flying up above in his red-tailed hawk morph, praises the hawk's vision and reveals he can not only see where the Controllers are having their meeting but can even see the mice hiding in the grass. Red-tailed hawks cannot see that well at night, and Tobias' inability to do recon at night because of this comes up a handful of times in later books, even as early as the fifth book.

U.S./UK Differences

• There are also various spelling changes between the two versions; words such as analyze, blond, ax and center are changed to analyse, blonde, axe and centre in the UK version.

2011 Relaunch Differences

• In the original edition, Visser Three claims it is nice to meet Elfangor and remarks that he is a legend. However, The Andalite Chronicles reveals they knew each other in the past. The reprint fixes this interaction, with Visser Three stating that it is nice to meet Elfangor again and that he is a legend now.
• In the original edition, Elfangor tells the kids that so long as they don't direct their thoughts to him, Visser Three will not hear them. In the reprint, he clarifies that they must be morphed in order to use thought-speak.
• In the original edition, Tobias sticks his sliced finger in his mouth, explaining that his cat injured him earlier. However, morphing heals all injuries. In order to rectify this inconsistency, the reprint omits that line.
• In the original edition, Jake uses thought-speak while in human form to communicate with Tobias. However, since a human must be in morph to use thought-speak, the reprint modifies the situation. Instead, Jake attempts to telepathically communicate with Tobias, only for Tobias to reply that he cannot hear Jake's thoughts and that Jake must be in morph in order to do so.
• In the original edition, Jake mentions that his knees reversed directions while he was morphing his dog. However, dogs do not have reversed knees. This is fixed in the reprint, where Jake instead mentions that his hips folded in.
• In the original edition, Jake mentions that he owns a Sega console. In the reprint, it is changed to "game system."
• In the original edition, Jake refers to Dead Zone 5 as a CD game he plays on his computer; in the reprint, the "CD" and "computer" portion is removed, in an effort by the publisher and editors to remove outdated references.
• There are some spelling differences from the original edition to the reprint.
  • The original edition uses "Humans" and "Marines" while the reprint uses the lowercase "humans" and "marines."
  • "Salad Shooter" is changed to "SaladShooter."
  • The Hork-Bajir language is written in italics in the reprint, while it was written normally in the original edition.
  • "Bow wow" is spelled as "Bowwow" in the reprint.
  • "Superbowl" is spelled as "Super Bowl" in the reprint.
• In the original edition, Elfangor says "Yeerks." at the end of chapter 3, but the repeat at the start of chapter 4 spells it as "Yeerks!" adding an exclamation mark. The reprint rectifies this error.
• In the original edition, Jake refers to Frankenstein's monster as "Frankenstein" which the reprint corrects.
• The original edition also italicized certain words throughout the book for emphasis, which were removed in the reprint.

TV Adaptation

Main article: My Name is Jake (Part 1), My Name is Jake (Part 2)

The Invasion was loosely adapted into the first three episodes of the Animorphs TV series: My Name is Jake (Part 1), My Name is Jake (Part 2) and Underground. Several changes were made from the book to the episode.

Gallery

"Someone took a picture of me? Not cool. Do you see what I'm wearing? I'm Spandex-boy. Totally not cool." The image gallery for The Invasion may be viewed here

References