The Stranger

Science fiction

First published: 1997
Print length: 163 pagesScholastic, 1997

Description

Rachel and the other Animorphs discover a new entrance to the Yeerk pool and devise a plan to infiltrate it by taking cockroach form. The disguise creates a deadly problem: Taxxons regard roaches as food. Their mission quickly becomes a difficult struggle to escape. Rachel, Cassie, Marco, Jake, Tobias, and Ax then embark on an extraordinary journey as another urgent decision confronts them. A figure offers to save them, forcing the group to choose between remaining on Earth to fight the Yeerks and leaving for another planet.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Dialogue-driven · Direct

Pace

Fast

Tone

Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Linear

Focus

Plot · Relationships

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 1 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

FreedomFriendshipMoralityOppressionSurvival

About Katherine Applegate

Katherine Applegate writes fiction for children and young adults, moving between science-fiction series and fablelike novels centered on animals, trees, and other unlikely narrators. Across these forms, she uses direct prose and accessible premises to bring moral choices into focus. Animorphs places ordinary children with the power to become animals inside a covert struggle against alien invaders, where adventure repeatedly tests loyalty and compassion. The One and Only Ivan and Wishtree work on a quieter scale, using observant nonhuman voices to examine captivity, responsibility, prejudice, and belonging. Applegate keeps these concerns grounded in concrete acts: protecting a vulnerable companion, keeping a promise, welcoming a new neighbor, or deciding when silence is no longer enough. The One and Only Ivan, narrated by a gorilla confined in a shopping-mall enclosure, won the 2013 Newbery Medal.

Series

Animorphs · Book 7

The One and Only Ivan Apple Books

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Scholastic
Language: English
ISBN: 9780590997263

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