Status Report

A larger cover for Animorphs #8 has now been released via Amazon:

Sadly, no full Andalite version for Ax is available yet, but we’ll be sure to post it once it is. Animorphs #8: The Alien will be released in September 2012.

Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs) is attending a YA dystopian panel at the San Diego Comic Con this year! He updated his facebook recently with the following details:

Hungry for Dystopia
Room: 25ABC
Thursday, 7/12/12
3 to 4 PM

With the skyrocketing popularity of the Hunger Games, dystopian literature has been creating major waves in the media. What attracts these authors to explore the concept of a totalitarian future that possibly awaits us all? Anna North (America Pacifica) leads the discussion with panelists: Neal Shusterman (Unwind trilogy); Lissa Price (Starters); Paolo Bacigalupi (The Drowned Cities); Michael Grant (BZRK); Daniel H. Wilson (Amped); Gennifer Albin (Crewel); and Marie Lu (Legend trilogy).

Tickets and program details can be seen at www.comic-con.org

The fight for the planet continues in this gripping installment — and the Animorphs must make an exacting choice.

The last time Rachel and her friends entered the giant Yeerk pool beneath their town things went very bad. This time they plan to be careful, and sneak in as roaches, just to spy. Once they’re inside, though, the team gets caught. But right as things are looking their most dire, everything stops. Everything. Then Rachel and the Animorphs hear a voice. It belongs to a very old, very powerful being, and it says it can save them. But if it does, the Earth will be defenseless.

PAPERBACK EDITIONS

Order from Amazon.com (U.S.) **

Order from Amazon.ca (Canada) **

Order from Amazon.co.uk (U.K.)

eBOOK EDITIONS

Order Kindle Edition **

Order NookBook Edition

The next book in the series is Animorphs #8: The Alien, and it will be released September 2012. There are no details or confirmations regarding any relaunch releases past that. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we find out.

Adam from the Cinnamon Bunzuh! blog has posted an exclusive interview with David B. Mattingly, the Animorphs series cover artist from the Classic run. Here’s a small excerpt:

Adam: When you were working on covers with animals in them, did you have physical animals in front of you to work from sometimes, or did you just use photographic reference, how did that work?

Mattingly: No, I use photographic reference, but its very rare where you find the perfect piece of reference. I also needed to avoid, you go on google and you find a picture of a tiger and morph the character into the tiger, because you’ll get sued for that. There’s actually a zoo in New Jersey that I went to, where I shot a lot of photographs. It’s called the SpaceFarms Zoo. I looked it up the other day, because I wondered if it was the zoo that this Matt Damon movie called I Bought a Zoo was based on, but it wasn’t. But Space Farms New Jersey, it’s sort of a weird private zoo. And they had bears and tigers and all kinds of stuff. And they let you in and you wander around, just like a regular zoo. So that was the source of a lot of reference for the series.

Adam: Likewise, when you were working with human models for the covers, how did you tend to work with them?

Mattingly: I’d shoot models on it, and a problem I had throughout the course of the series is that it went on for I guess five years, and the kids, kids from when they’re ten to fifteen change profoundly, and I’d bring the kid in for another shoot, and he’d look like a completely different person. And Scholastic didn’t want me to reuse old photographs because it would have forced them to re-pay the models, so I consistently shot new models and then attempted to make them look as close to the old models as I could, I’m not sure entirely successfully. The only model who I used throughout the series was the model for Cassie, because she was kind of a petite girl, she might have been a little older when I cast her, and she changed little enough over the course of the book that I used her consistently. She was also a wonderful model.

Read the full interview at Cinnamon Bunzuh! >>

Good news for Animorphs #7: Scholastic released the book 2 days ago, a half month earlier than the official release date! If you pre-ordered, then they should already be in transit. If not, then expect them to be shipped to you soon!

In other news: I have updated Animorphs #5 with the full relaunch edits! A larger cover for Animorphs #7 has also been posted, and a few other relaunch pages have been updated with minor details as well.

Oh, and I gave the character profiles an update too (You can view them by clicking on the individual Animorphs on the header up top). I rewrote a couple of the profiles, fixed the parent details (there were many of you who told me about this, thank you), changed up the pictures, etc.

That covers everything for now. Until next time!

K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant are returning to write together once again with the upcoming Eve & Adam (Released October 2nd, 2012). The official cover, summary, and pre-orders are now available via Amazon:

In the beginning, there was an apple –

And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker’s head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.

Just when Eve thinks she will die – not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect . . . won’t he?
 

---

KATHERINE APPLEGATE is the author of many books for children and young adults, include the award-winning Home of the Brave.

Her husband, MICHAEL GRANT, is the author of the BZRK series and the bestselling Gone series.

Together they wrote the popular Animorphs series. They live in Northern California with their two children and numerous unmanageable pets.

The long wait is finally over! Scholastic has officially released the relaunch cover for Animorphs #8: The Alien! Here it is with the full summary:

The Animorphs are back in this installment narrated by their newest member.

Ax is an Andalite, an alien, stranded on a strange planet he’s sworn to defend, even though it’s not his own. Since the Animorphs rescued him, he’s fought at their side, and in that time they’ve come to consider Ax a friend.

But deep inside, Ax knows he isn’t their friend. He can’t ever be. Andalites must always hold themselves apart, even from their allies. As the Animorphs’ past actions start resulting in deaths of innocent people, however, Ax’s loyalty is called into question. Now he must decide whether to reveal the reason for his estrangement — the shameful secret of his people.

Released: September 2012 | ISBN: 978-0545424158

The new cover has also been updated on our pre-order page. Once a higher resolution is available, we will make sure to update about that as well. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest Animorphs updates!

There is a lot of new info today, so lets get started:

1. K.A. Applegate is now officially on Twitter!

   Follow her @KAAauthor.

 

2. Michael Grant (co-author/creator of Animorphs) is doing a ridiculous number of LIVE interviews on the radio today (March 1st). If any fan happens to record one of these interviews, then send ’em our way!

   See full schedule of Michael Grant’s radio interviews.

 

3. K.A and Michael are currently doing several school visits as well. Michael is primarily doing his book tour in the U.K, and has posted his schedule on Facebook. His first UK visit is on March 13th, 2012. U.S dates are currently unannounced.

   See the UK schedule for private and public events.

 

4. Animorphs #6: The Capture is officially relaunched today in both lenticular paperback and ebook editions.

   See the official summary and order info.

 

5. While not official yet, there is some good news for GONE fans regarding the possibility of a movie!
   

   See Michael Grant’s update for the Gone movie.

 

6. EVE AND ADAM is now available to pre-order! No official cover or summary yet, but the release date is set for October 2nd, 2012.

   This will be the first book by both K.A and Michael since Remnants. The only detail we know about the book at this point is that it is a dark comedy with male (Michael) and female (Katherine) perspectives.

   Pre-Orders are currently only available for U.S and Canada.

I think that covers everything for now. Be sure to follow both Michael and Katherine for any upcoming tour dates, as well as us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest info!

Really cool surprise today! Marlee Roberts (actress/singer) recently revealed that she is the Rachel cover model from the new relaunch books! She also gladly accepted to join us for a quick Q&A here at Hirac Delest. You can read the entire interview all right here:

Hi Marlee, welcome to Hirac Delest! It’s a pleasure to have you here!

Hey! Thanks for having me 🙂

Tell us a little bit about yourself: How did you get started in this business? What was your first professional role?

I started in the business when I was pretty young, about 4 or 5 years old. It’s been quite a long journey. The first acting gig I did was for an Orajel toothpaste commercial. All I had to do was run up to my actor-grandpa and smile into the camera, haha. It was fun and easy. After that, I made appearances on shows like “David Letterman” and “One Life to Live”. When I reached about 10 years old, I auditioned for a musical called “The American Girls Revue” and got in! I joined the cast as Kirsten, Kit, and Felicity playing the three roles for the next 4 years. I hadn’t had much singing experience before that so the show taught me all the basics. Pretty soon I was writing my own music and after the show closed, I started releasing my own original contemporary pop songs. Throughout all of this, I did a lot of print modeling for brands like Hanes, Walmart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Rose Art, and Scholastic!

It seems like you have a wide range of talents in singing, acting, directing, and now modeling. Do you have a preference of one over the other? What are some of your goals?

Everyone always asks me this! Honestly, I just love the industry. Whatever I do in the entertainment world, I have a great time doing it. Acting has always been my first love because it’s what I started out doing in the business. I also think you can apply acting to anything… when singing, writing, directing, modeling or even presenting a project in front of class at school, my acting experiences have always helped.

My main goal is to continue pursuing what I love. I feel so blessed to have been able to dip my feet into so many aspects of the industry and I could only hope to continue. To me, being an artist (no matter what kind) means reaching out to our society and making a difference in a way nothing else can. To share stories and open up the world to readers, viewers, or listeners is so fulfilling.

For Animorphs, how did you land the role of Rachel? It sounds like you were surprised and only recently found out about this yourself.

My agent called me up one day and said that I got a job. Just like that. He said that I was chosen off of his site because they thought I had the perfect look for Rachel.

I did the photoshoot a little over a year ago so I completely forgot about it! Then some of my friends discovered the site and it all came back to me. I got sooo excited because I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to be morphed into a cat but there is something seriously awesome about watching your face morph into an animal. The new book covers are pretty sweet.

What was the photoshoot process like? Were there any special ‘morphing steps’ or stances you had to go through with animals or other cover models while there?

The photoshoot process was awesome. It was super quick, fun, and easy. Shortly after I arrived in the studio, we got right down to business. The photographer directed me to look fierce, directly into the camera. We tried some different looks and fierce poses and it went by real quick.

I didn’t get to meet any cover models although I’d like to meet my morphing friends 🙂

If you could morph into any animal, what would be your first choice? Last choice?

Hmnnn, this is hard. I think it would be cool to morph into a bird and be able to fly. Cats are pretty cool too because they can jump and climb and roll around all day. It seems as if their world is like an ever-changing obstacle course.

How familiar were you of Animorphs before this? Have you had a chance to see or read the new reprints?

Who hasn’t heard of Animorphs!? It’s a classic! I remember the books were such a big trend in elementary school. I haven’t read any of the reprints but I just got the new copy of “The Visitor”.

Rachel is a big favourite amongst fans, and is often nicknamed Xena: Warrior Princess. Is there a superhero or pop-culture icon that best describes your personality?

Ooohh good question! I have to say Rachel is pretty close to me. Shopping, good grades… all pretty important things.

What is your work philosophy? Any advice you would give to those aspiring to do professional work as well?

Never give up. To be successful, no matter what field you are in, takes A LOT of time and effort. But if you do what you love, then it’s never really “work”. It’s never easy but it doesn’t mean the journey can’t be fun.

Any future plans on returning as Rachel?

As part of the SAG book pals, I visit schools to get kids interested and involved in reading. I’m excited to share that I’ll be reading an excerpt of “The Visitor” for all the classrooms I visit this year. And now they can actually meet Rachel!

Very cool! Some of our fans are actually parents and teachers now. Any chance you have schedule or a list of schools you’re planning on visiting?

Generally, I visit schools in the Tri-State area. Parents, teachers, or schools can actually request a visitation via the contact form on my site.

Finally, is there any current or upcoming work we might catch you in?

Yeah! I just finished acting in two feature films: “The English Teacher” will be in theaters soon and “Spaz” premieres in August. This spring I’m also releasing a new EP of three original dance-pop songs. The first music video will be online next month. As far as filmmaking goes, I’m working on a bunch of new short films that will be available online after they run the film festival circuit.

All updates can be found on my site marleeroberts.com and fans can keep in touch through my facebook or twitter.

Thank you so much for your time! We’re looking forward to seeing you again in the future!

Thank you! It’s been a blast.

 
Marlee will also be returning as Rachel in Animorphs #7: The Stranger (June 2012). You can read more about the book in our relaunch book section, and pre-order it as well. Fans can also contact or follow Marlee at her:

Official Site: marleeroberts.com | Facebook | Twitter | Newsletter
 

K.A. Applegate’s new book The One and Only Ivan has been released! The official website, theoneandonlyivan.com, has been launched with a new blog and video trailer (with a very haunting score, I might add). A Q&A with K.A on Publishers Weekly was also released, for those that missed it in our previous update.

The second new release for the month is Havoc by Jeff Sampson (the Animorphs Classic-Era Informer and Official Anibase author). The book is the second part in the Deviants YA trilogy. Since the summary is kind of spoiler-ish for those that haven’t read the first book, the new order and plot details can be found at jeffsampsonbooks.com.

Finally, we have some Relaunch news: The lenticular edition of Animorphs #8 is now available to pre-order via Amazon, and the links for it are up on our order page (see right). I have also updated the individual relaunch pages with the new official summary for #8, and a new official promo sheet for #7.

One last thing, because a lot of people have been asking: There has been no reveal yet regarding the new Ax cover for Animorphs #8, or news for Megamorphs #1, or any future relaunch books. Any future releases past #8 depend highly upon the sales figures for the books released so far, and whether Scholastic thinks they’re successful enough to continue being published. Rest assured that once there is any official confirmation, you will all know right here on Hirac Delest.

That’s all for now. Until next time!