Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A passionate author can make all the difference

Check, Please! Book 1 #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

by Leave a Comment

I had seen this floating around, but it wasn’t until I saw Ngozi Ukazu speak at the NYPL professional day at New York Comic Con this year that I really wanted to read it.  I had seen the cover and thought, “Oh, hockey, not really for me,” and passed it by. But seeing Ukazu speak so passionately about her work inspired me to seek it out. (Fun fact – my public library where I work did not have it, but the high school where I […]

You Want Something Fun, Fast, and Adorable? You Like Bros, Baking, and Hockey? Well Here You Go!

Check, Please! Book 1: Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

by Leave a Comment

I honestly can’t tell you why I haven’t gotten into Ngozi Ukazu’s web-comic series Check, Please! before (this book is just the first 2-years of the protagonist’s story compiled into one volume), because I know I’ve heard good things about it before, and upon finally reading it I can say that I really did enjoy it a lot! It is super cute, with a lively and clean art style, and is about nice hockey bros just being bros?? Love that. Yeah, maybe it’s a little […]

The least toxically masculine thing you will ever read.

Check, Please!: #Hockey, Vol. 1 by Ngozi Ukazu

by 3 Comments

So if you go over to Goodreads and scroll down the first page of reviews, you’ll see that nearly every review starts along the lines of, “THIS WAS SO ADORABLE.” Or “THE CUTEST EVER I’M DYING.” And now that I have read this, I too, can sympathize. This was monstrously precious. I am compelled to say this because of how cute. Check, Please! is a sweet little web comic that is finishing up later this year. It follows Eric “Bitty” Bittle, a former champion figure […]

Life, school, hockey and baking pies

by 3 Comments

These might be some very controversial statements/questions: Why can’t a white, male author write about a female? Why can’t a white author write about a black character? Why can’t a straight author write about a gay person? Why can’t a first-generation Nigeran, Texan, female author write about a gay, white, 18-year-old southern kid? Wait. She did. Ngozi Ukazu, a self-proclaimed person who knew nothing about hockey, went about writing a screenplay about a boy and hockey. She turned that eventually into Check, Please! Book 1: […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo