Surf's Up, Pikachu!

The story concerns a surfer whose ambition is to ride a giant wave which appears only once every 20 years and to plant a flag on a small island to which the wave would bring him. At the end of the story, he rides that wave out of the necessity of saving a Pokemon which he owns. He plants the flag, but the story never explains how he happened to have that flag in his hand while he was so concerned over saving his Pokemon. Furthermore, is the island is so remote that planting the flag there is proof of riding the giant wave? If so, then how does he get back to shore where the other characters congratulate him? Just one gripe about the Scholastic Pokemon books: I wish they would have illustrations that fit they stories, rather than cutting corners with stock pictures of Pokemon characters.

My second grade son dreaded reading at home for leisure or homework. Once he was introduced to the Pokemon junior series he began waking up early to read before school! The books are very appropriate for first and second graders with sight vocabulary and sentence structure levels set for late first grade or early second grade. I wouldn't want to read these myself as a mom, but my son is reading every day with this series. Research shows that the number of minutes spent reading a day correlates to a child's success in school.

My five year old Pokemon fan enjoyed the story -- Ash and Pikachu meet a surfer (and his unusual Pikachu) who dreams of surfing the world's biggest wave. There are no color illustrations, just black and white drawings of the characters, but my daughter didn't seem to mind. The book is fairly easy to read, but I wouldn't call it a first-step reader. What I liked best about the story was that it showed how Ash and Pikachu care for each other. It wasn't just about Pokemon battles.

Wow!This book surfs!Its a holiday for Ash and Pikachu.There's a wave that is the biggest in the world that come in 20 years.But there's trouble in there and ending with suprise/happy endings.Gotta buy that book.