Official Pokemon Handbook

Hours of Pokemon Pleasure

• What: The Official Pokemon Handbook
• When: 5 to 12 years
• Why: Quick summary, easy to read
• Where: Amazon

If you have a fan of Pokemon in your house, and they don’t yet have a copy of The Official Pokemon Handbook, consider grabbing a copy.

This book details each Pokemon, including their type, abilities, attacks, and even how they evolve. Whether your child plays Pokemon Go, the original card game, the video games, or even enjoys the shows or movies, this book showcases the first 150 Pokemon and all their attributes. 

If you’ve grown tired of giving your child more Pokemon cards, only to find them scattered everywhere, this book makes a great gift without adding to the card chaos. The simple data format, similar to a Pokedex, means kids can find the info they want without the need to decipher long paragraphs of extra information. My biggest gripe is the lack of organization. You can look up each Pokemon in the index at the back of the book to find the page number. But unlike other Pokemon reference guides, this book does not list characters in alphabetical order, which can make finding them a bit trickier. Whether your child uses it to read about Pokemon they find in games or stacks of cards, or just enjoys reading all about the different characters, this reference book will last as long as their love of Pokemon.