The Test is the forty-third book in the Animorphs

Animorphs

Animorphs is an English language science fiction series of young adult books written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. Five humans, Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias, and one alien, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill , obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch. They name...

series, written by K.A. Applegate. It was ghostwritten

Ghostwriter

A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...

 by Ellen Geroux. It is narrated by Tobias

Tobias (Animorphs)

Tobias is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs written by K.A. Applegate. His surname is never mentioned, but had the Ellimist not altered time in order to take his father, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, back to his old life, his full name would have been Tobias Fangor, the...

.

Plot summary

As the book opens, Tobias discovers Bobby McIntyre, a missing child who was hiking through the woods. He leads the boy's father and a search party to his son.

Throughout the book Tobias deals with the psychological after-effects of the torture he endured at the hands of the sadistic sub-visser Taylor. He continues to question his own strength and resolve.

Taylor, claiming she is now part of the Yeerks' Peace Movement, enlists Tobias to try and sabotage the Yeerk pool. All of the other Animorphs, except for Cassie, who declines on moral grounds, accompany him and Ax as they dig a tunnel to the pool. In order to dig a tunnel to the Yeerk pool, Tobias and Ax alternate turns in Taxxon morph, which has a nearly uncontrollable constant hunger. In fact, Taylor has been working for Visser Three, and sets off a gas explosion. Cassie is able to turn off the gas from its control station, injuring several humans in the process. She is once again distraught by the violence she has had to use to save her friends. Taylor is presumably killed in the gas explosion.

The book ends with Rachel and Tobias on the beach. She holds his hand and reassures him that he is not weak and encourages him to let go of the past.

Contributions to the series' story arc

• Taylor is believed to be killed.
• Taylor mentions to Tobias that the Yeerks' invasion of Anati planet - supervision of which was given to Visser One in Visser
  Visser
  Visser may refer to:* Visser, a companion novel from the Animorphs sci-fi series, and also a term used within the continuity of the series to denote a Yeerk of high status or rank in the military of the Yeerk Empire...
  
   - is floundering.

MORPHS

Morpher	Morphs acquired	Morphs used
Jake Jake Berenson Jake Berenson is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists from the science-fiction book series Animorphs, written by K. A. Applegate. Until the penultimate book of the series, his last name was never revealed, and he was known only as Jake...		Siberian Tiger, Gray Wolf Gray Wolf The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...
Rachel Rachel (Animorphs) Rachel is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs. Her full name is never explicitly mentioned in the books, but her relation to her cousin Jake Berenson through their fathers makes it most likely to be Rachel Berenson, if it was never changed or hyphenated.-Biography:Before the...		Grizzly Bear Grizzly Bear The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
Tobias Tobias (Animorphs) Tobias is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs written by K.A. Applegate. His surname is never mentioned, but had the Ellimist not altered time in order to take his father, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, back to his old life, his full name would have been Tobias Fangor, the...	Human Human Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...  (Taylor), Taxxon Taxxon The Taxxons are a fictional sentient race in the Animorphs book series by K.A. Applegate, one of the species conceptually created for the series. They resemble giant, centipedes, with the forward one-third portion of their body held erect. They move on many rows of needle-like legs and the legs...	Human Human Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...  (Taylor), Taxxon Taxxon The Taxxons are a fictional sentient race in the Animorphs book series by K.A. Applegate, one of the species conceptually created for the series. They resemble giant, centipedes, with the forward one-third portion of their body held erect. They move on many rows of needle-like legs and the legs... , Andalite Andalite The Andalites are a fictional alien race of grazers in the Scholastic book series Animorphs.-Biology:The Andalites are fictional aliens from the book series and TV series Animorphs.... , Bat Bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
Cassie Cassie (Animorphs) Cassie is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs, written by K. A. Applegate. Her last name is never mentioned, although she referred to it as being "nice" in The Secret.-Biography:...		Wolf Gray Wolf The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...  ("offscreen")
Marco Marco (Animorphs) Marco is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series, Animorphs, written by K. A. Applegate. His last name is never mentioned.-Biography:...		Gorilla Gorilla Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies... , wolf Gray Wolf The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...
Ax Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs.-Biography:Aximili is a young Andalite who becomes stranded on Earth when the Andalite Dome Ship GalaxyTree is shot down by Yeerk fighters...	Taxxon Taxxon The Taxxons are a fictional sentient race in the Animorphs book series by K.A. Applegate, one of the species conceptually created for the series. They resemble giant, centipedes, with the forward one-third portion of their body held erect. They move on many rows of needle-like legs and the legs...	Taxxon Taxxon The Taxxons are a fictional sentient race in the Animorphs book series by K.A. Applegate, one of the species conceptually created for the series. They resemble giant, centipedes, with the forward one-third portion of their body held erect. They move on many rows of needle-like legs and the legs...

This book was the first to feature a cross-gender human morph, when Tobias morphs Taylor. Although Tobias technically morphs from hawk to girl (as opposed to morphing from boy to girl), it is the first time in the series that any of the characters became a human member of the opposite sex.