It all starts on a happy day for Malcolm, the day he turned 11 and that his parents would give him exactly what he had asked them with all kinds of specifications to avoid the slightest mistake. But there was, and it wasn’t the happy day I had hoped for. Instead of a latest model computer he had in his hands a furry and dwarf chinchilla.

It’s not that he doesn’t like them, don’t misunderstand him. They already have two cats, a dog, a hamster and an iguana. Enough. What you don’t have is an Apache 321 computer.

While most kids would go crazy to have any pet, Malcolm doesn’t like animals. Imagine his face when he is given the “other” gift.
The end-of-course excursion to the Orwell farm.

The worst is yet to come, because horrible, very bad, terrible things begin to happen on the farm!!.
Malcolm ends up turning into a turtle on the first day, and he’s not dreaming, he’s now a turtle.

A turtle, a cat, a sheep… Malcolm mutates from animal to animal without knowing how to become a human child again. Now it’s AniMalcolm!

Living, literally, like an animal.

I have a 10-year-old son who is the opposite of Malcolm, his name is Noah and he lives up to his name, because he adores all the animals in the world and the minimum that you neglect you put them at home.

My son claims to be an animal and has animal instincts, and well, that’s what happens to Malcom, who magically turns into animals after asking a question: How can I make me like animals like everyone else? As if it were a punishment, karma acts quickly and transformations begin. Every time he falls asleep, he wakes up a different animal.

The story is really fun and quick to read. Malcolm’s curse or blessing, depending on how you look at it, occupies the entire central axis of the story and has a purpose, to make Malcolm show interest and even affection for animals. I suppose that’s what the old goat was looking for when she gave him that dubious gift.

AniMalcolm spends the entire book changing animals while looking for a way to become human again.

I like that he shows the curious side of Malcolm when he begins to take an interest in the fauna around him. Every time he becomes a different species they have other creatures of that species nearby, so he is not alone and has hilarious conversations with them, but he also asks them questions and gathers information. Could it be that this is how he will like animals?, Did the old goat (male) do well to give that punishment / gift to Malcolm?.

I do not like to reveal the whole story when I review, but I can tell you that the end is totally surprising and tender, the story is woven in a way that begins and ends with the same point in common that all the logic of the world has.

It is written in a very pleasant and simple way and uses a typography with line spacing, so that it does not exhaust the little ones and they are not overwhelmed by seeing too much letter. To complete, from time to time, an illustration appears, either double page or in a room.

With this book surely my son will see that he is right and I am not when he tries to convince me that going out barefoot on the street, walking on all fours, making strange sounds and putting bugs at home is normal when you are an animal, forgetting that he is actually a child … But it doesn’t matter, the truth is that it makes me happy to see that passion and blind love he has for nature and its species. That’s why we liked AniMalcolm, because it transmits that love and respect for animals with each transformation. The message is there and it gets very well.