External influences?

[naoki-hime.livejournal.com]

So I'm in a Fantasy/SciFi themed Lit class this semester, and we had to read Ender's Game for it. For anyone who hasn't read it, the summary is over here on Wiki, and it's about a little boy whose entire purpose of existence is to be trained to hopefully be able to lead a defense against an alien race. He ends up in Battle School, where by the time he's 11 he's been leading armies in simulated battles where the deck is entirely stacked against him, been taught to kill if it meant he'd survive, and to make the same sort of choices Jake's making by the end of Animorphs, but Jake had the benefit of being nearly 16 (or already 16? I don't remember anymore D:) by the time he made them (not that it's much of a benefit, but 16 versus 11 is at least something). The plot deals just as much with Ender dealing with the effects of being a child weapon, just like Animorphs does - in Ender's Game, they're intentionally breaking him down and rebuilding him to be what they want, which if you go back through cause and effect far enough, I think it's arguable that the Ellimist did the same thing to the kids. Or, for that matter, that the Ellimist and Crayak's games are equally comparable to the battle simulators they put Ender through.

I looked through the back posts in the comm, and the closest thing I can find is this post that includes a quote from an interview with KAA and Michael saying that their influences are more philosophical than science fiction, but with Ender's Game being released originally in 1985 (and that quote admitting that Michael's a scifi fan), I can't help wondering if Ender's Game had any influence on the series. Do any of you know anything, or have any thoughts on the matter?

On a smaller note, if you haven't read Ender's Game before, I'm 90% that any of you who enjoyed Animorphs would also enjoy Ender's Game as well. I highly recommend it, if you haven't already read it, and if you have, I'm very interested in your thoughts.