Every Friday at 8:30 p.m. EST (and repeating again on Saturdays at 9:30 p.m. EST) make an appointment with your kids to watch one of the hottest series for pre-teens and adolescents on Nickelodeon. It's called Animorphs. This half-hour, live-action sci-fi adventure, produced by Scholastic Productions, is based on the K.A. Applegate book series. Each episode follows five teens who are charged with saving Earth from the Yeerks, slug-like parasites that enslave their human victims by invading their brains. To help them defeat the Yeerks, the Animorphs are given the power to become any animal they touch. Their biggest challenge is trying to be normal teenagers while outsmarting evil forces.

Scholastic producer Deborah Forte explains the success of the series: "Kids are inspired by these very identifiable teenagers who become heroes as they struggle to rescue the world."

Searching for heroes in literature can be an adventure, too. Take some time to talk about heroic figures in your favorite books. Or check out the Animorphs book series in a library or bookstore. Then talk about the differences between the TV version and the literary one. Is the action as scary? Are the characters different in the book in any way? Is this for the better or worse?

You and your children can also visit the Animorphs website.