As someone who is a huge fan of Pokemon, I was interested in reading this as my nonfiction book of the quarter (I try and read four a year). It really was fascinating to see how Pokemon got its start, and how it is affected millions of people around the globe. It did discuss other common franchises (Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc.), but I was more interested in the history of Pokemon. It was still interesting, mostly because it was more about the phenomenon rather than the games themselves.

I found this book to be the perfect length. I had a great time nerding out to this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

A very interesting look at Pokemon and Pop Culture. Fun and nostalgic while still interesting and full of new information (to me).
The writing wasn't super my favorite, but non-fiction can be rough for me to read through.

A fascinating look at the most popular media franchise of all time. As someone who grew up on Pokémon, I found it really interesting to see just how big of an impact this company had on my generation. Would highly recommend this to fans of Pokémon, millennials, and anyone interested in pop culture history.

An outstanding book for anyone fascinated by the craze of Pokemon and even the alternatives like Digimon of the early 2000s. I learned so many great things about the history of Pokemon that made me better understand why it's still relevant today. One of my favorite books of 2022 giving tremendous in depth information about a unique topic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Running Press for this ARC.

As a Pokemon fan, I was interested in this book because it goes over the history of how Pokemon came to be and its long-reaching influence throughout the years.

Monster Kids proved to be a very interesting read that provided a lot of information about not only Pokemon, but various other franchises that influenced Pokemon and that Pokemon helped influence and provide a market for. This included Tamagotchi, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Monster Rancher.

There are also illustrations throughout the book that are fun to look at, though these are not illustrations of Pokemon or the other franchises mentioned. I assume this is to avoid copyright infringement so I can't blame them for that. Regardless, they are well-done and help break up the text throughout the book.

Overall, this is a good book for anyone interested in Pokemon and the long-standing influence it has had in the world over the years.

In Monster Kids, Daniel Dockery brings readers, and those who lived it, into the Pokémon boom and the many other series that evolved and came to be after the creation of the gotta catch them all boom.

Dockery explores the background and creation of Pikachu and the many other pocket monsters that have become household names as well as other creations such as Duel Monsters (Yu-gi-oh) and Digimon and how these Japanese creations dominated the entire world in the early 2000s and the steps it took to make it all a household juggernaut.

As a child, I loved all of these series and this book allowed me to understand just how each came to be and the impact that it had on mine and many other children's lives.

I highly recommend Monster Kids to anyone who loves learning how trends started, fans of these franchises or anyone who just wants to catch them all!

Following the Ekans-like path of Pokémon's success feels nearly impossible. The franchise continues to grow year after year, breaking records and exploring new frontiers as it goes along. Dozens of games and a staggering amount of anime. 931 Pokémon species. Over 440 million games sold worldwide! How did it get this big? What lessons can be learned by examining this meteoric rise?

Author Daniel Dockery's debut book is here to answer these questions. Monster Kids: How Pokémon Taught a Generation to Catch Them All (expected to release in October from Running Press) is a deep dive into the how/why of Pocket Monsters and the perfect storm that turned them into a juggernaut. Daniel writes with a clear and rich voice that shows his personal connection to Pokémon (and its contemporaries). His experience writing for websites like Crunchy Roll (where he is the senior writer), Polygon, and Vulture can be seen in the easy to parse book structure. 

While a book on the history of Pokémon would be fine, Daniel explores the climate that cultivated the Japanese titles as well. Anime, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and even Fighting Foodons make an appearance. This book's step-by-step approach feels special and incredibly vital in our modern day. Anime wasn't always a global force and monster collecting wasn't always something cool. There was a time before Pokémon Go and Pikachu in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

As I read, I found myself highlighting Daniel's creative writing and fascinating bits of information. I adored Daniel's measured approach to this history. As much as I love Pokémon trivia videos on Youtube, Monster Kids treats this history with the respect it deserves without the flippancy that sometimes occurs. Even if you're a major Pokémon fan, there is a Magneton of information here. It's clear that Dockery loves this era of pop culture. His book makes it clear that you should too.

If you grew up with trading cards on the playground and the PokeRap stuck in your head, Monster Kids is right up your alley. But even non-fans will find this book worth its weight in Pokémon Gold.

(An ebook copy of Monster Kids: How Pokémon Taught a Generation to Catch Them All was provided for an honest review by Running Press.)

Generally, good informative book. I enjoyed all the tidbits of information about early years that, while I lived through it and was active in it, didn't realize at the time because I was too young to know. I learned a lot about how it ran, and I enjoyed that. It was also nostalgic to read about things like the burger king toys, going to see the first Pokemon movie in theatres, and and. The nostalgia was definitely there, and it was cool.

Generally, if you like Pokemon and history, I'd say pick it up, it's an entertaining enough read, however I have warnings.

First of all, the title is mildly misleading. It says on the cover about how Pokemon taught a generation to catch em all, which it does cover, but it really means monster kids in the broad sense. This book also tackles literally every other franchise out in the late 90s and early 2000s. There's a lot about digimon, Yugioh and more. Granted, I don't think this is bad, just not what I anticipated. On the contrary, I enjoyed reading about the battles between Digimon and Pokemon as, again, I was young and didn't realize that this was happening, I loved both.

It's also a little jumpy time line wise. Switching back and forth from before and after gold/silver released, for example, so you kind of have to focus or you may get a little lost, but it's not too bad. It is overall fairly dry though. Aside from the nostalgia aspect, I found some of it really hard to stay engaged in.

This book is everything!!! It's a delightful nostalgia ride, an excellent conversation starter, and filled with fascinating stories behind pop culture events I remember clear as day, but from a child's perspective. This is perfect for readers who enjoyed 'Blood, Sweat & Pixels' and anyone who grew up around not only Pokemon, but Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, too!

The best part of reading this book was sharing these cool (sometimes hilarious) stories with my family about a time we remember fondly, and especially reminiscing with my brother, who got so much deeper into Pokemon and all the rest than I ever did. It was so much fun swapping facts about Pokemon, and excitedly talking about secrets from the behind the scenes business of making huge moments in our childhood come to life.

And in case you're wondering, the book covers the cultural phenomenon from all aspects --not just video games. So whether you were deep into the TV shows or movie events, trading cards or toys, you'll still be invested in reading all about the making of the Moment that was our childhoods.

I'll have a more detailed blog post up closer to publication date! ♥

4/5 stars

This was such a fun book!

I didn't really grow up with Pokémon. A few of my siblings were into it, and my current partner loves it, so I guess I know some basics, but it's never been my favorite show. Nonetheless, this book was very informative. I learned so much about the creation of Pokémon, what it meant to fall in love with the show as a kid, and how it's impacted pop culture. Even without knowing a whole lot about it, it was easy to follow along and very interesting!

Miigweetch to NetGalley and Running Press for the DRC.

This book explores how Pokemon got its start, how it spread, started a trend, and became the world-wide cultural phenomena we know today. This book is squarely in my wheelhouse as I lived through all of this, and was interested to explore the topic further.

Monster Kids is interesting and full of facts, however, my biggest caveat is the mishelveing/mislabeling of this book as a graphic novel, which it is NOT. There are only a few illustrations sprinkled throughout the book and they do very little to flesh out or expand upon the text. Ergo, I would not recommend this to most middle or high school readers unless they have a deep fascination with the topic or are doing a related research project; it’s simply too text-heavy to be accessible to younger readers, which is a shame because I think a true graphic novel version of this book would be appealing to the same demographic.

The text is simple and uses easy to understand language. It reads like a blog or a casual conversation, however, I believe the tone is almost too casual. It’s evident that a lot of research went into writing this and the text is chock-full of information. There’s potential in this book. I would recommend it to older fans of Pokemon or other monster hunting games who want to deep-dive into the history of the trend.

This might have been good, I don't know.
I WAS BAMBOOZLED!!
I was like, "sweet!! A nonfiction graphic novel!! About Pokemon!!!"
There are barely any pictures at all and there is no way our young patrons are going to give this the time of day.

I was misled by the way that this was shelved; it's in the manga and graphic novels section, but 90% of the book is prose, with occasional pictures. I was expecting a graphic novel and was disappointed that it was much denser and less accessible from a kid attention span standpoint than I expected.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Monster Kids by Daniel Dockery is an absolutely amazing documentary-like guide to Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and the rest of the monster TV shows that we loved as a kid! As a former kid from the 90's and 00's, I really loved this nostalgic throwback to those days. It was so interesting to see the Pokemon phenomenon from a retroactive perspective. So many things that I thought were "childhood memories" were actually part of a larger perspective that I had never thought about before.

Overall, Monster Kids is the perfect nostalgic book for the former Pokemon fan or current Pokemon fan in your life. And they'll especially like it if they were a Digimon fan! One highlight of this book is how comprehensive it is. It must have required a lot of research, which is clear from the amount of information contained in this book. There were so many facts that I had not known before. If I had to complain about 1 thing, I would say that the illustrations were a bit lacking. But I completely understand that licensing real artwork from Japan would probably cost too much. If you're intrigued by the description, or if you're a fan of monster animes, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in October!