Pokemon Ultimate Handbook

My 2 children, 11 & 12, love pokemon & wanted a book showing all of them & there information. They both can't put it down.

My six-year-old son loves this book. He's had it for several months now and keeps it under his pillow, so it is looking quite worn. He appreciates the illustrations and the simple format because he is a beginning reader and the layout helps him find what he is looking for, even if he has to ask an adult to read exactly what it says. The content of the book is simple but in depth--check out the "Look Inside" feature. Each alphabetical entry includes the "scientific" name, another name, and interesting fact or two about the Pokemon, and statistics such as type, height, region, and special moves. Each Pokemon is illustrated, and each form of a Pokemon's "evolutionary track" has its own entry with a chart showing all of its forms. In short, this book is very colorful and kid appropriate. The only suggestion I could make is that there be a hardcover version for greater durability. =)

My kids have spent so much time reading this, I wish we had sprung for two. It's not the chapter books I wish they were reading more of, but it sure holds their attention!

Allrightythen...first things first. For those parents who might still not be in the know, Pokemon is Nintendo's blockbuster videogame/TV series/movie/book/toy mega-multimedia franchise. Debuting in the mid-90's, Pokemon (short for Pocket Monsters) has become one of the most thoroughly developed and complex alternate-reality worlds in multimedia gaming. Both of my kids (ages 7 and 12) can't get enough Pokemon, so when my son saw this guidebook at his elementary school's book fair, it was a no-brainer purchase. What you get here is basically a print version of the National Pokedex, a running index of each and every known Pokemon. An online version can be accessed on the official Pokemon website. This book carries more detail than the online version, though, so it's very handy to have. The Pokemon are listed in alphabetical order, and you get a great amount of detail on each character, including possible moves, weights, heights, regions found in, and so forth. All of the listings are accompanied by full-color illustrations and as a bonus you also get the evolution paths for each Pokemon, making for easy cross-reference. Might have been nice to have a master index in the back of the book that gave page listings, but the alphabetical ordering makes it pretty easy to find specific characters without too much trouble. All I can say is that I can't recommend it enough if you have kids that are into the Pokemon phenomenon. It's way worth the 10-spot IMO.

My boys, 8 and 9, are really interested in Pokemon, particularly the video games and card collecting. I purchased one "Pocket Pokedex" book for them while on vacation this Summer and it proved to be the most desired and used item since. I actually had to replace the book within 2wks partly d/t to a bad binding and also because it was read for hours a day by both of them. The "Pocket Pokedex" has microscopic print and very little readability-mostly just the hard facts and technical points of each character listed in microscopic graphs. I saw this new version coming out a month ago and figured I'd treat my kids to it. I didn't preview the book, just hoped it would be as well liked as the one they already have. Well, this version absolutely blows away the "Pocket Pokedex"! This book is chock full of all the best details about every Pokemon (inc Darkrai!!)! It has large easy to read print, full color text and pictures of every Pokemon, all their strengths, weaknesses, battle criteria, their character morphing capabilities (including pictures of those), and they are all listed alphabetically for convience! My kids just screamed when I gave them to them and showered me with gratitude. They had no idea there was even a new referrence book available. Any Poke' fan will be thrilled with this outstanding see-all, tell-all, user friendly resource! Purely a grand-slam!