Pikachu I choose...long descriptive text with accompanying pictures?

June 16, 2018 4:07 AM

My nephew's 9th birthday is coming up and he is apparently into Pokemon this year. Last year I got him a Star Wars encyclopedia which he loves and carries around with him everywhere. I'd like to get him something similar this year but Pokemon related but I'm not having much luck. Does anybody know if there even is such a thing as a Pokemon encyclopedia? Other suggestions welcome as well.
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand to Shopping (9 answers total)

What you're looking for officially is called a Pokedex, which is a bestiary that exists in the universe, but these tend to be more in depth stat guides in our world. There are versions for every edition that's out so you'd want to check what he's playing now.

There's also more nicer quality books like this:
not Canon, but here's a fan art unofficial guide to Pokémon anatomy
posted by Karaage at 4:19 AM on June 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Yes! There is exactly this book. I used to order it for the bookstore where I worked and it was a consistent reliable best seller.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:22 AM on June 16, 2018 [7 favorites]

Another vote for the Handbook. My son has various editions and reads them all the time.
posted by jadepearl at 5:57 AM on June 16, 2018

Yet another vote for the handbook. My daughter loves hers and thumbs through it all the time.
posted by methroach at 6:29 AM on June 16, 2018

Best answer: Yes the pokemon handbook, although fwiw, every 9 year old I know already owns it.
posted by k8t at 7:00 AM on June 16, 2018

My nine year old is sitting five feet from me reading through that book right now. All the pages have fallen out; it's just loose sheets stacked in order. He has much of it memorized and still reads it for fun. Definitely this.
posted by gideonfrog at 9:06 AM on June 16, 2018

You may also want to consider getting an old electronic Pokedex toy. I had the original 90s edition (based off the one in the anime) and LOVED it. It's always cool to have a prop version of the "real" thing.

Only problem is I don't think there's one available that has all the modern Pokemon in it. Best bet there probably is the original Tiger model, which had stats, animation, and sound of all 150 of the generation I Pokemon (except Mew). eBay has some available for around $20.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:02 PM on June 16, 2018

Whichever one you get, make sure it covers egg moves if your nephew plays the video games. The first link seems to cover them, the second doesn't offer any insight into the book, so I don't know.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 6:30 PM on June 17, 2018

I got my son a talking Pokeball guessing game for Christmas last year. It comes with a book that has details of the Pokemon (a smaller version of the handbook) but it is a magical toy. To start it asks you to think of a Pokemon. It will then ask questions about the Pokemon (is it a water type? does it evolve into another Pokemon?) and based on the answers narrow things down until it is able to guess to Pokemon. It's an electronic version of Guess Who? but for Pokemon. The knock against it is that it is only Gen 1 Pokemon.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:09 PM on June 18, 2018