Welcome! You may have noticed that I missed a week – I was so busy attending our BCP Monthly Meet last Thursday that I forgot to write something. But I’m back now, so don’t be mad, okay?

I went to Asda today to pick up some bread and while I was there I discovered that today is World Book Day. You may remember World Book Day from primary school, but I bet most of you have kind of forgot it existed since then.

So as it’s World Book Day, I decided to talk about non-comic books this week, specifically books from childhood. And for me, there is one series of books that instantly comes to mind when I think back to my primary school days: Animorphs.

I got my first Animorphs book on my 7th birthday as a gift from an aunt, and I’m pretty sure she didn’t bother reading the description when she bought it – I remember her saying something like “I think it’s about horses” as she handed me the book about kids who turn into animals to fight parasitic alien brain-slugs.

My Animorphs obsession lasted through all 54 books in the main series, plus all the companion books. And having just done some calculations, it seems my Animorphs collection set my family back by around £400 over the years. Er, I think when I’m done here I’m going to go apologise to my mother…

Looking back, I think it’s partly thanks to Animorphs that I am who I am today. I read comics and fantasy and science fiction because of the books I grew up on. That’s why I think its important that World Book Day is still a thing – there is still a bit of magic in getting your World Book Day book, and fiction still has an important role to play in shaping our society.

If you want to tell me what books shaped your childhood, or have a chat about Animorphs, let me know in the comments below!

The writer of this piece was: Lauren F. Roberts
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