Elfangor's Secret

Disclaimer: If you've heard of Animorphs and you're thinking "Aww, how cute," maybe you should read my introduction to the first book to see how wrong you are.

ELFANGOR'S SECRET

Megamorphs #3
by K.A. Applegate

Summarized Plot:

After experiencing a startling jolt of an alternate future, the Animorphs are tasked with following Visser Four back in time and stopping him from altering time with the Time Matrix he found. Finding themselves in battles--from Agincourt to the Revolutionary War to Trafalgar to Normandy--they keep finding Visser Four trying to turn the tides of important battles, and ultimately to stop it from happening they have to try to stop Visser Four's host from ever being born. But the price of being allowed to have this chance is very hefty. They've had to agree to let one of their group die.

About this book:

Narrators: Tobias, Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Marco, Ax

New known controllers:

• None

New morphs acquired:

• Jake: War-horse (deleted due to a timeline being erased)
• Cassie: None
• Marco: None
• Rachel: None
• Ax: None
• Tobias: None

Notable:

• Jake's family is claimed to have Jewish blood in this book, and Rachel says her dad is Jewish.

• The slaves in the book seem to have a numbering system on humans, which is interesting because Yeerks also use numbers to refer to themselves. K.A. Applegate seems to like using such things as symbols of depersonalization.

• This book includes some historical details that suggest quite a lot of research was done, but it's also interesting that realistically, the kids don't understand the significance of the battles they attend or the changes they made, because like most people they don't actually know what the details of history are. This realism really adds to the storytelling.

• This book implies strongly that a white person called Cassie the N-word. The narration avoided saying it--surely due to this being a kids' series--but that was a bold move as well as being a realistic one. Cassie's reaction--feeling like she'd been slapped, then turning into a polar bear (in order to "turn white") and beating the crap out of the person who said it--is one of the gems of the series.

• Tobias and Rachel get to kiss in this book.

• Interesting that Oppenheimer was not targeted as a person of interest in eliminating the H-bomb, since he was the director of the Manhattan Project.

Best lines:

The Drode: "Oh, sure, it's all fun and games when they end up starting genocidal wars or engendering race hatred--"
Rachel: "Yeah, what's more fun than that?"

Ax: "I do not mean to insult your ancestors, Marco, but if the Yeerks had arrived in this era they would have left to find some other species to infest. These humans have all the parasites they could possibly support."

Jake: "Marco's the one wearing Washington's boots."
Rachel: "No way. George Washington?"
Marco: "Jake, tell her 'No, Guido Washington.'"
Jake: "Marco would like me to pass along a sarcastic remark."

Cassie: "You don't like black people, Mr. Davis? No problem. I can turn white. Watch me."

Princeton student: "What are you people? You're not human!"
Ax: "You are correct. I am an Andalite."

Ax: "I am profoundly tired of your people."
Tobias: "I'm not exactly thrilled with them myself."

Cassie: The Nazis. The ultimate evil. Worth dying to stop them. Yes. Worth my one, puny life. But I didn't want to die. No matter how great the cause. No matter the reason.

Next book: The Reunion, Animorphs #30