Comics Review: CHECK, PLEASE! BOOK 1: #HOCKEY by Ngozi Ukazu

CHECK, PLEASE! BOOK 1: #HOCKEY by Ngozi Ukazu (First Second, September 2018) Hardcover, 288 pages. ISBN # 1250177952 /9781250177957 Harvey Award Nominee for Digital Book of the Year (2018), William C. Morris YA Debut Award Nominee (2019), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Graphic Novels & Comics (2018) 

Summary on the Goodreads website. . . . .

Helloooo, Internet Land. Bitty here!

Y’all... I might not be ready for this. I may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It’s nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! First of all? There’s checking. And then, there is Jack—our very attractive but moody captain.

A collection of the first half of the mega-popular webcomic series of the same name, Check, Please!: #Hockey is the first book of a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life. 

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     You can't help but root for "Bitty" in this heart-warming, feel-good collection of the first volume of webcomics featuring a good-natured coming of age story about comradeship, hockey, pie-baking and secret love. 

     What is more remarkable and admirable to me is the story of the origination of this work, and that the author knew nothing about hockey before writing this book. Created during a screenplay-writing seminar during her senior year of college, Ukazu wrote HARDY, "a 120-page screenplay about a hockey player who tragically falls for his best friend -- a dude." That story morphed into CHECK, PLEASE! as a webcomic and later a successful crowd-funded graphic novel. 

     There may be not quite enough hockey scenes to satisfy those looking to read a sports comics, as the story is at its' core "a slow-burn romance" (as many of my fellow participants in Captain Blue Hen Comics monthly book club described it.)

     Ukazu's simple art style is as charming as her characters and her writing. A highlight for me included the very amusing "Hockey Shit with Ransom and Holster" section that explains some of the popular hockey terms and phrases among the inner circle of players and fans. 

This graphic novel is one that I would recommend to middle-grade and high school readers interested in something more grounded in reality than superhero or fantasy comics.