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The Dadmag Guide To Children's Books
Pokemon (Series)
(Ages 6-12)
As a dad, I've learned that I can read some stuff aloud without the slightest bit of comprehension or retention. The Pokemon series is a case in point. The basic idea? A hundred and fifty or so different pocket monsters (pokemon) are out there in the fantasy landscape of these stories. Kids as young as ten are licensed to catch and train them to do battle with each other. Incompetent villains try to louse things up. I Choose You, the first volume, is almost painful to comprehend; it takes a real act of will for an adult to stay focussed on the trite situations, choppy action, and wholesome messages. When I read this to my son, I've already gone on to the rest of the evening. The paragraphs, characterization, and certainly the dialog are all minimal and stilted, as you might expect of books adapted (by Tracey West) from a low-grade cartoon. Many kids, however, fall into them as if they were Dickens. My theory? They speak to the powerful pet-keeping instinct. In another time or culture the whole Pokemon thing might have found expression through kids challenging each other with their pet beetles. If your kid is enthralled by the trading cards, the Nintendo game, the TV show, the movies, the board game, the stuffed animals, the key-chains, the bedspreads, the pop-tarts, the macaroni, the vitamins... to the point of no longer reading, you can at least use these books as a wedge back into the printed word.
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