Status Report

The relaunch edits for Animorphs #2: The Visitor are now posted in our Missions section. I had a bit more fun with this one, and was able to find about 25 edits in total.

Along with this, Animorphs #1 has also been re-organized and updated with 2 new edits, thanks to yunyun. If anyone has any extra edits that I have not already posted for Animorphs #1 and 2, then please contact me.

(The edit list for Animorphs #3 is also currently being compiled, but is on hold until I can get a bit more free time to work on it.)

That’s all for now!

Scholastic has updated the Official Website and given us a look at the new Animorphs #5 cover with the new model we previously posted about:
 

Our relaunch page has been updated to include both versions of the covers and models, and the change has been reflected in our pre-order page as well.

Animorphs #3 is now officially relaunched today! The book has already been released early at a few select locations, but it should be at all retailers now, including in ebook form. Book summary:

Animorphs #3: The Encounter (Lenticular Edition)

When Tobias and his friends were given the power to morph, they were also given an important warning: Never stay in a morph for more than two hours. But Tobias broke the time limit, and now he’s trapped in the body of a hawk — forever. When he discovers an important Yeerk secret, Tobias knows he has to do everything in his power to destroy it. But to do so, he’ll have to contend with a part of himself that’s wrestling for control. A part that isn’t human.

See: Paperback and eBook Order Links

In addition to this, there’s also some interesting relaunch info by Renata from Why, a Blog!, who attended David Levithan’s panel at the annual American Library Association (ALA) conference this year. Here’s a brief quote:

Anyway, so he starts up his presentation and the first slide is covers of the Babysitters Club and Animorphs relaunch titles, though he said that he didn’t have anything to do with Animorphs (although he did work at Scholastic when Animorphs was being published). He talked about the late 80s and early 90s as the “heyday” of series fiction, when books would come out once a month or twice a month. He cited BSC, Animorphs, and Goosebumps as Scholastic’s “Big Three,” which was interesting to me because I never thought Animorphs were as popular as BSC or Goosebumps? As a kid, I definitely knew more people who read the other two series than Animorphs. But maybe that was just my school. Also, he described all three series as being “episodic” fiction where it didn’t necessarily matter if you read them in order, or read all of them. To some extent that’s true of Animorphs (there are definitely books you could skip, for example) but I don’t think it’s true in the same way it is for BSC or Goosebumps.

Oh, and he talked about revamping the series-es (I think the plural of series is just series but whatev) and making them “time neutral.” The example he gave was if a character was listening to a Walkman, they didn’t change it to “iPod,” since you’d just have to change that again in 10 years. Instead they changed it to “music.” He said it wasn’t that hard to do, which I thought was a little surprising.

I suggest everyone check out the entire post, as it’s an interesting read. She covered the event by posting at both Why, A Blog! and the Animorphs LiveJournal Community.

Lastly, I have also updated the missions archive. Animorphs #1 now has a list of all the relaunch edits that I could find in the re-read (Please let me know of any edits I may have missed), and Animorphs #3 now has the back cover added (via amazon), and a new higher-res front cover.

Oh, and I renewed Hirac Delest‘s hosting/domain for another year (We’re now 4 years old!). Thanks to everyone who has supported us through the years! Until next time!

Scholastic has released the entire step-by-step cover morph for Animorphs #4 in the new Fall 2011 Paperback Catalogue and the Bologna Book Fair 2011 Rights Guide! Here are the full pages below:

Sadly, no full image for the Animorphs #3 morphing process, but we’ll be sure to post about it if we find it! The images for #4 have been added in the relaunch Missions page. Until next time!

Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs) informed me today that Animorphs #7 and #8 have now been confirmed for a Summer 2012 relaunch release! Like the first six books, they are going to be re-released with lenticular covers and updated references as well. This is hopefully a good sign that the sales from the May relaunch of Animorphs #1 & #2 went well (although we currently do not have the exact figures to know for sure).

In other news: A larger cover for Animorphs #5 is now released via Amazon. Please remember, however, that this is still for the first Marco. Although Scholastic has confirmed that this Marco will be recast from the whitewashing controversy, they have still not yet updated the new model through the official site. Rest assured that we will definitely keep you updated once that happens.

There are now also official online advertisements for Animorphs too! These are flash banners that show off Jake’s morphing animation from the first book, and I have converted them to GIFs for us (See: Ad #1 & Ad #2). These are apparently being shown on various sites, however I have only seen them on Scholastic’s official site myself. Please do let me know if you see them anywhere else.

Lastly, I have also gone ahead and updated the Missions section to add #7 and #8 to the relaunch list, and I have updated the FAQ to reflect this change as well. That’s everything for now. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we hear more! (Can’t wait to see the new Ax!)

A very quick post today: I have upgraded our Community Board so that it is now ad-free! This should hopefully last us a little while, as it depends on the user usage vs any length of time.

Also, the Relaunch books now have their own forum as well! This forum is for both new and old fans to discuss, so please remember to keep all details and spoilers regarding future books away from this area. A separate forum (“Animorphs Classic”) is still in place for older fans to discuss the series openly if they wish to do so. I have also added specific book threads for both Animorphs #1 and Animorphs #2, and have linked them on our archive pages so they will go directly there as well.

Lastly, I also wanted to highlight a new thread that Xan (our most recent, and 200th member!) made. He is asking for a request of ideas on a very cool project that he is making for his final term. It involves some guerrilla/viral-like marketing to promote The Sharing for his Animorphs project. I don’t post requests like this for many forum topics, but I think this shows some promise and is a very cool way to go in promoting the series. The thread can be found under the ‘Animorphs Classic’ Forum (or click here to go directly there).

That’s all for now!

Following up from our post about the first book, Animorphs #2 is now available as an official ebook by Scholastic! It has been released on both the Kindle and the Nook. Also, Animorphs #5 is now available to pre-order in paperback as well! All of the links have been set up in our order page (see right).

Along with this, I have also gone ahead and updated the Relaunch book pages. #1 & #2 have their back covers posted (thanks to the scans from Ian), Animorphs #4 has a larger cover, and the rest of the relaunch books have been edited with new pictures and trivia as well.

Lastly, I have also gone ahead and changed our domain (hiracdelest.com) so that it now redirects right to this blog. (If anyone misses our old intro, I’ve saved it over here). That’s all for now. Until next time!

“‘Give me liberty or give me death.’

A human named Patrick Henry said that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew before they came to conquer Earth that humans said things like that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew what they were getting into.”

This is it everyone: Animorphs is now officially relaunched! Even though many of us have already gotten the books in advance, this is still an exciting thing to note about. This is the first time in 10 years that the series will finally be available in book stores!

So I want to know: What does everyone think? What do you like? What don’t you like? I posted my review on Goodreads, in case anyone is interested!

Along with this, K.A. Applegate also had her first ever autograph sessions yesterday! Michael Grant (K.A’s husband and co-writer/co-creator of Animorphs) was kind enough to give us some great photo and video updates via Twitter and Facebook:

So for those that made it to this event, let us know how it turned out. If you have any pictures that you would like shared as well, then feel free to comment below! And don’t forget: Spread the word! Animorphs is back!

It was inevitable that when the new models were released on the official website, that the fans would compare them to the original models they grew up with from the first run of the series. However, one particular issue took priority over all other nitpicks as fans quickly noticed that the new Marco was paler and lighter from any of the previous models, and who did not match the half-Hispanic “dark complexion” (with dark skin and dark hair) that the character was often described by.

For those unfamiliar, this practice is most commonly known as whitewashing, where characters from minority backgrounds are often misrepresented in the media by being given favour to models or actors with lighter and paler skin. (If you’re looking for a more in-depth discussion about this, take a look at The Book Smugglers. They wrote a great article about some of the more popular cases from last year.)

Once fans realized what had happened, they sent out a petition and contacted both Scholastic and Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs). Marissa from Racebending also published a really well written article on her blog, as a show of support to the fans. The topic and concerns from the fans were well covered in that article, and I would recommend everyone to go read it at racebending.com

However, the issue didn’t linger for very long. Scholastic replied back quickly and confirmed that they were already going ahead to change the Marco cover model. The change will be reflected onto the new cover and official website once the photo shoot and morphing animations have been completed. Here is their full response, thanks to Blue Rampion:

“Thank you again for getting in touch with us about the Marco model for the cover of Animorphs #5: The Predator. We always appreciate hearing from Animorphs fans, and we want you to know that we have heard and share your concerns. We will, in fact, be using a different model for the actual books from the one that currently appears in our catalog and on the Animorphs web site. The first Marco book won’t be published until December 2011, so there is plenty of time to make sure we have a model who truly represents the description of the character in the books. (Please note that the website will be corrected as soon as the new photo shoot has been completed and the morph animation can be redone; in the meantime, the placeholder Marco will remain.)

While getting a new model was something we were already planning to do, we truly appreciate you advocacy on behalf of Marco. The support and passion of the Animorphs fan community has always been a crucial part of the success of the series, and we certainly want to be responsive when concerns arise.” -Scholastic

Along with this, Michael Grant also responded (for both him and K.A. Applegate) to the fans via Twitter, thanks to LisaCharly:

So there you have it. A very big congrats to the fans for sticking up for this (especially to those in the Animorphs LiveJournal Community), as well as big thank you to the great Scholastic team in charge of the Animorphs Relaunch for being so positively receptive to the fanbase’s concerns!

As for the new model, there’s no telling how long this will take, but we’ll be sure to keep you all updated as soon as the change is reflected onto the official site. For those who are interested in reading more about this subject, I’ve assembled a collection of related links for you here:

Discussion: Official Site launch & models
Discussion: Marco model petition launch
Michael Grant and K.A. Applegate respond
Racebending.com article for Animorphs
Discussion: Scholastic responds about Marco’s model
Michael Grant and K.A. Applegate apologize to fans

Until next time!

Thanks to Ian, we now have two very cool things to share with you today!

First: The sale we mentioned about earlier this week for the relaunch books, is most definitely for current orders, not pre-orders! Scholastic is shipping Animorphs #1 & 2 out early (almost 2 months in advance!), and this is now confirmed. To prove it, here is Ian holding up his copies of both books:

We have no idea why Scholastic is suddenly releasing these so early, but I suggest fans take advantage of this while they can! Remember, this is only for The Scholastic Store, not Amazon or anywhere else. The 30% off sale is still in effect (as I am posting this), and there is no closing date posted for it yet. The advanced shipments are also only for U.S. residents at the moment, as the Scholastic Store does not ship out for international orders. (Please correct me on this if I am wrong!)

Second: The inside of Animorphs #1 & 2 features a sneak preview of all 6 relaunch books, which also finally reveals the cover of Animorphs #6! Ian, who is now lucky enough to own both books, was able to provide us a scan:

All of this has already been added to the relaunch pages. The relaunch trailer we posted about recently has also been added to Animorphs #1 & 2, as well in our video page.

One last thing: there is also a new link! In the excitement of revealing the trailer last time, I completely forgot to mention that Scholastic has released a new link related to the relaunch. It is scholastic.com/JoinOurFight. At the moment it just redirects to the official animorphs.com site, but if it goes to anything more than that, then we’ll definitely keep you updated!

That’s all for now. Thanks again to Ian, for providing us with the pictures and scans. Also thanks to Jordan, who also confirmed the early shipments by forwarding me a copy of his shipment notice from Scholastic.

Until next time!