Kids into books: Animorphs - The Illusion

Animorphs: The Illusion

Author: K. A. Applegate

Publisher: Scholastic, $11.95


My name is Tobias.

And I don't think I could have felt more uncomfortable if I'd just been asked to give an impromptu speech on the French Revolution in front of an all-school assembly.

Well, okay. I guess that would be pretty bad. But this Friday night was definitely right up there.

Back when I was a regular kid, school dances made me a little uneasy. I've always been a loner and all, and they just weren't my thing.

But now! Now that I spent most of my life as a red-tailed hawk - hunting, flying, protecting my meadow - dances made me feel even weirder.

Bird-boy at the ball.

Why had I let Rachel talk me into this? I mean, what do you do with your arms? They just dangled there. Stiff. Awkward.

And my eyes! I'd fix a stare on someone and forget, until it was too late, that people tend not to do that.

A big, burly redhead noticed as the raptor in me burned a hole through his girlfriend.

"Jerk!"

Oops. Hard to remember I wasn't perched in a tree a half mile away.

I'd been cool enough at the last school dance. That was more of a group thing, I guess. Tonight it was ... I don't know ... a date? No, no, no. We were all there. Pretending to be acquaintances.

I looked ridiculous, I was sure of it. And I was sure that everyone else thought so, too.

Did Rachel?

*Tomorrow: "Let's kick it, boys and girls!"