The only part I liked about this one was the ducks. The Animorphs are suspicious of a train that seems to be bringing military force into the state capitol (I think- hard to remember since I had a gap between reading the beginning and end of this book)- so they go to scout it out but have to evade the enemy who now also have morphing power and come after them as birds of prey. They manage to acquire ducks, which have much greater stamina for long-distance flying (and can travel inconspicuously in groups) and bolt for the Governor's mansion, determined to let someone high-up know about the aliens and finally get support. As cockroaches they cling underneath a limo that's taking the Governor to a function, and then morph back to human in front of the Governor and her spouse once they are in a private room. The Governor is a woman, which takes a lot of them by surprise. Not surprising, some of the people around them are Controllers- including one of the Governor's guards- so after the shock of showing themselves and quickly explaining to the Governor, there's a hectic crazy battle that turns into an insane car chase for the rest of the book- them trying to keep this new ally in leadership position, out of the aliens' hands. Includes a yacht of partygoers getting blown up and a bridge collapsing. I kind of blanked out for most of it. A lot did not make sense, or just plain bored me, sigh.

from the Dogear Diary ( )

The Animorphs decide to tell the Governor the truth. I like the various reactions to the Governor being a woman. The Governor was an admirable woman.

The book was mostly fight scenes.

I'm looking forward to seeing Cassie face the consequences of letting Tom take the morphing cube. She let her feelings for Jake override the big picture. ( )

A short comment for every book of the series until I get a chance to re-read them. All three of my sons and I loved this series and read every single book - I even bought every single book (most, but not all, used; some through school book sales). I'm excited to re-read them to see how the five main characters develop and to watch all the different transformations again.

The best books appeal to *readers* universally - not children versus adults. These may not be quite worthy of the adjective 'best' but they do have that crossover appeal. ( )