Pokelopes

So, I’ve been sucked in. Shane Bee lent me his Nintendo DS, along with his impressive collection of games. I’ve become enamored with Pokemon Pearl, and I’m in the middle of catching them all.

I could go on and on about how I like playing Pokemon because it’s non-violent (the creatures battle, but faint rather than die) and collect-y.

Really, what I wanted to point out is that this is a phenomenon that first took hold in the 1990’s, where a whole generation of children got kind of obsessed with imaginary animals. Then the whole fad started to fade into the annals of popular culture.

So I was as surprised as the next librarian when I discovered that Pokemon is again popular. It seems that the younger siblings of the original generation have picked up their brothers’ and sisters’ cards and games, and have revived this pocket monster of a game.

I wrote a whole article for the local paper on how the categorization and organization of Pokemon is good for kids’ brains, if the merchandising doesn’t get to them.