Scott Pilgrim: Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley [book]
Publisher: Oni Press, 2004Paperback: 168 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 1932664084
Plot Summary:
Twenty- three year old Scott Pilgrim is a good will shopping, sarcastic, cool guy that plays bass in a band called Sex Bob- omb; he is a hipster. He does not have a job and he lives with his homosexual roommate in tight quarters while he lives his simple yet humorous life. He spends his days at the beginning of the story semi- courting Knives his seventeen year old girl friend, which consists of walking around and talking. Ramona Flowers is a mysterious, girl from New York that can travel to other dimensions and spends her time delivering packages by roller skates. Scott becomes obsessed with Ramona when she appears in his dreams and in his everyday life, so much so that he leaves a broken hearted Knives and starts to court this multi- colored hair space traveling hip chick. They officially meet at a party where Scott draws a doodle of her and decides that he needs to know more about the girl. The rest of the novel is playing in the band and attempting to get to know Ramona and it culminates when Scott finds out the Ramona has 7 evil ex boyfriends that Scott must defeat in order to finally be with her. He agrees to the challenge and band fights with her first ex Matthew Patel. Matthew Patel gets under Scott's skin by sending him an email and then engaging in a martial arts fight that has the back drop of bands and music. Patel is defeated and a rain of coins fall where he was standing showing that he vanquished and it is known that the first of the exes has been defeated when Ramona glows. At the end of the novel Scott and Ramona start their relationship and the novels to come afterward describe their continuing battle of the exes.
Critical Evaluation:
This book is fun, adventurous and whimsical. It uses manga style art work and action scenes, youthful language and characters that are unique and well developed. The references to video games are good connection to video games in the novel playing on alternative hobbies like graphic novels and video games (a good example being when evil exes turn into coins). The illustrations are well done and the story line is a little complicated in that Ramona is able to travel through another dimension, but overall it is easy to read and short enough to finish quickly and move to the next in the series. Perhaps the best part of these books is that Scott must battle Ramona's boyfriends, which I'm sure many people feel the need to compete with their significant other's exes at one time or another- literal or not.
Reader's Annotation:
Scott Pilgrim is in his early twenties, in a band and living his life day to day with his younger girlfriend when a mysterious girl starts to get into his head, changing his "precious little life" as he knows it.
Websites to look Into:
http://radiomaru.tumblr.com/
http://www.scottpilgrim.com/
Awards:
New York Times bestseller
Eisner Award
2 Harvey Awards
Doug Wright Award
Joe Shuster Award
Similar Books:
"Scott Pilgrim: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" by Bryan Lee O'Malley
"Scott Pilgrim: Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness" by Bryan Lee O'Malley
"Scott Pilgrim: Scott Pilgrim gets it Together" by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Booktalking Ideas:
Showing scenes from the movie in comparison with the book layouts
Comparing this graphic novel to other more traditional manga novels
Genre:
Graphic Novel, Action
Interest Age:
13-19 yrs.
Challenge Issues:
The only challenge issue that I for see in these novels is that Scott dates and underage girl and that there is violence. To combat Scott dating the younger girl, I feel that it is pertinent to say that their relationship consists of talking and he soon leaves her. As for violence, it is conveyed humorously rather than in rage, being presented through band battles and other fights with exes in the novels that follow it up.
Why this Book?
Graphic novels are very popular with young adults, and this book was made into a movie that was received by this audience very well. They are fun books for both boys and girls, and there are many of them so they can continue reading them over time.
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