Animorphs, a mostly obscure series from the late 90's and early 00's, is an absolutely wonderful series that doesn't deserve to die. Since everyone else has, I'll list the positive points and negative points. Let's start with the negative:
The ten books or so leading up to the final arc were consistently badly written with stupid filler plots and little character development.
The ghostwritten period made the books much more hit or miss; there were some really good ones, but most of the worst also come from that era.
The overarching plot was obviously unplanned, only gaining speed in the final ten books or so, and the fillers in between were mostly boring. Also, the fillers were too frequent; almost half of the books in the series could've been removed without anything really missing.
There were often huge lapses in logic to serve the plot, meaning that you needed large suspension of disbelief in almost any given book.
And now, the good parts:
The cast of characters is one of the strongest I've ever seen anywhere, let alone a kids series; every one of the main characters feels acutely like a real person, and they grew realistically throughout the series.
The tone was shockingly dark a lot of the time, and the more successful books were quite intense.
The overarching plot doesn't come up much, but when it does, it's well worth the wait in terms of unpredictability and suspense.
More tropes were deconstructed than I've seen in anything else anywhere.
The prose was almost always strong, if not usually special.
Even when the plots were stupid, the pacing was always fast and engaging.
The books managed to be gender-neutral in an era where nothing for kids was gender neutral. It also had exceptional gender politics.
The final arc was very well planned and suspenseful.
There's moral ambiguity to the whole thing, the likes of which I've never seen in any other kids series.
The ending to the series was beautifully realistic and tender; I was bawling afterwords. It also completely changed my opinion on wars and their necessity, in a way that nothing else has.
It was clear that diversity was important to Applegate, which is important in a kids novel.
Overall, while there were some problems with lapses of logic and planning, this is an exceptional kids series that I'd recommend to anyone.
Wonderful
Animorphs, a mostly obscure series from the late 90's and early 00's, is an absolutely wonderful series that doesn't deserve to die. Since everyone else has, I'll list the positive points and negative points. Let's start with the negative:
And now, the good parts:
Overall, while there were some problems with lapses of logic and planning, this is an exceptional kids series that I'd recommend to anyone.