The book is known to have been ghostwritten by Ellen Geroux.
A free Hork-Bajir is captured by the Yeerks and involuntarily reveals the location of the Hork-Bajir valley. Jake and the other animorphs head to the colony to warn the Hork-Bajir. Jake thinks it would be best to abandon the valley and flee, but the Hork-Bajir, led by Toby Hamee, insist that they want to stay and fight. As a part of the battle strategy, the Animorphs (most of them) morph beavers to make a dam to flush the Yeerks out of the valley. Jake and Tobias spot a group of campers who would be likely be innocent victims of the fighting and approach them to try and convince them to leave. They don't buy Jake's lame story and Jake decides that he must show them the truth and he and Tobias both morph in front of them. It turns out that the campers are Star Trek fans and (believing the Animorphs to be actual aliens) insist on helping the Animorphs. They assist Marco's parents (who now live in the valley) and the free Hork-Bajir in an assembly line of creating spears and other weapons.
Meanwhile, every other chapter consists of somewhat-related diary entries from Lt. Isaiah Fitzhenry, a great-uncle to Jake's grandfather, who fought in the American Civil War, specifically against General Forrest.
Animorphs is an English language science fiction series of young adult books written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. It is told in first person, with all 6 main characters taking turns narrating the books through their own perspectives. Horror, war, dehumanization, sanity, morality, innocence, leadership, freedom, and growing up are the core motifs of the series.
The story revolves around five humans, Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias, and one alien, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (nicknamed Ax), who obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch. Naming themselves "Animorphs" (a portmanteau of "animal morphers") they use their ability to battle a secret alien infiltration of Earth by a race called the Yeerks. The Yeerks are a parasitic race of aliens resembling large slugs that take humans as a host by entering and merging with their brain through the ear canal. The Animorphs fight as a guerilla force against the Yeerks, led by Visser Three, and their program to take over the human race. Morphing into animals allows them to battle the various armies of aliens that the Yeerks use, but it also protects their identities. As far as the Yeerks know, only Andalites like Ax have the ability to morph, and if they knew that the Animorphs were mostly human they would be able to easily find out who they are. Protecting their identities becomes more and more difficult as the series goes on because though someone with the ability to morph can change into any animal that they touch, they can only stay in a morph for two hours or they will permanently become that animal. Throughout the series, we see how the war affects the characters in different ways, mentally and physically.