Did you know every February 27 is Pokémon Day? I didn’t until my library started celebrating it last year. Our Pokémon Day celebration was our last big children’s event before the pandemic sent us all home and pivoting to virtual programs. This year, Pokémon turns 25. I don’t know about your communities, but in mine the Pokémon love is still strong. (I’m also personally and eagerly awaiting the new Switch game in 2022.)

To celebrate this year’s milestone, I made what is probably my favorite booklist of all time: 18 recommended titles for tweens (ages 9-12) based on the 18 different Pokémon types. I have no idea if patrons will actually use it. But I had so much fun making it that I’m going to do a series of posts on each type here on my personal blog, each with 5 or so titles. I’ll also expand to titles for younger kids and some nonfiction, which I didn’t have time to do for the original list.

I didn’t take into account dual-type Pokémon or the elusive ??? type. But thinking about reader’s advisory in terms of types—which are essentially elements—has been an interesting brain exercise. Some were really easy, like Steel (steampunk/mechanics/robots). Others, like Ghost and Dark, were a little harder because they are very close in terms of content. But I actually had the hardest time with Grass and Rock because I couldn’t think of many fiction books where gardening or geology was a central part of the plot!

Anyway, here is the list as published by my library. Happy Pokémon Day!

(And, in case you needed to know, my favorite Pokémon types are Fairy, Ghost, and Grass. If I were a gym leader, my gym would have some serious haunted magical forest vibes—much like Opal and Balloonlea.)