Check, Please!, Book 1: #Hockey

I loved this comic series so much. Bitty is an adorable and sweet character who grows but never stops being himself and is part of a team who wholeheartedly accepts him for who he is. Watching this group of characters Ukazu created mature as they face challenges both on and off the ice is a delight. While she doesn't shy away from some of the challenges Bitty faces as an openly gay men's hockey player, she's created a group of friends who refuse to let it get him down. A really sweet coming of age comic with a prominent queer romance plot that will delight readers whether they're into hockey or not. Recommended.

A college freshman - a gay figure skating champ/hockey player from Georgia - adjusts to life on a small Massachusetts college campus, makes friends with his new teammates, bakes pies like a pro, struggles to overcome his fears in the rink, and copes with it all by keeping a vlog. Oh, and he's pretty sure he's falling for the hockey team captain, although he's also pretty sure he's straight (the captain that is).
Oh gosh, I loved this one! Bitty (the main character) is all kinds of adorable and funny, as are all of his teammates, who are a fantastic mix of typical crude college dudes and lovable & fierce friends who have each other's backs no matter what. I love that they accept Bitty as gay when he comes out to them as a matter of show more course, and that his sexual identity is just one of many Life as a College Kid topics. The love story is equally sweet, and Ukazu makes it so easy to root for both Bitty and Jack. Definitely recommended. show less

Well, gosh, this is all the feels and all the squeeeee! -- cute as hell, captures college life really well, and all of the weird hockey bro culture just grows on you like a persistent fungus. Love the romance, Bitty's sincere character, the excessive baking, the hilarious nicknames, the awwww moments. Loved the characters enough that it was awesome to read the in-character tweet log at the back of the book -- that's a statement in itself. More, please! It's an absolute delight.

Reading graphic novels is a fairly new experience for me, one I discovered only this year and I don't think I still have the right barometer to rate or review them. However, I have found that my tastes lean towards cute and adorable, and I can tell without hesitation that this graphic novel falls exactly in that category. I also have no clue about webcomics and only heard about Check, Please! because many bloggers received the ARCs at BookCon and it seemed fairly popular and now I can see what all the fuss was about. This was a delight to read and I'm so glad I chose it for Mythothon.

Bitty is absolutely adorable - there's no other word to describe him better. He is a passionate vlogger and baker and that comes through a lot in the book. show more He loves sharing the little details about his life at college and about his teammates with his followers and that is what we get to see. Baking pies definitely seems like his first love - he bakes when he is happy or sad or stressed or frankly, he doesn't need any reason. He is also slightly apprehensive at the beginning of the college year because he hasn't come out to his team and is actually quite scared of getting hit while playing. However, he slowly wins over everyone with his cuteness and charm and obviously, pies. He forms amazing bonds of friendship with everyone on the team and it's a real delight to watch him grow from strength to strength, gain confidence in himself and become a better player.

The true strength of this book is the team. Every single person takes their team motto of "having each other's back" seriously and there is no scope for jealousy or unruly competition. They have hilarious nicknames and I couldn't stop grinning when I first met Shitty. Despite his ironical name, he is a very supportive guy and the first person Bitty feels comfortable coming out to. Ransom and Holster take it upon themselves to find him a date while also covering his back during the games. In his sophomore year, Bitty takes a new player under his wing and makes sure he is able to perform at his best. And last but not the least we have the brooding grumpy captain Jack, who makes it his mission to help Bitty get past his phobia for checking.

What we see is a very slow progression of friendship between Jack and Bitty. Jack makes Bitty feel more confident in his game and believe in himself while Bitty draws out Jack from his solitary existence to become a more integral part of the team. Their little interactions are so cute and beautiful and I kept wishing I could see more of them together. I also kept hoping that Bitty's feelings would be reciprocated and while this was one of the slowest burns ever, it did give us an amazing cliffhanger!!!!

The art style in the book is very colorful and truly complements the fluffy nature of the story. I could really feel every emotion that the characters were going through and that was amazing. I also loved the idea of the story being told through Bitty's vlog, because it really gives us a better understanding of his personality and how he interacts with his fans. The ending of the book has a special section for Bitty's tweets and that was the most hilarious part of the book. It shows a very witty side to him and frankly gave me so much more insight into the development of his friendship with Jack. I really wish that much more of the situations that Bitty tweets about were actually part of the story.

Finally, I can just say that if you love reading books that make you happy, then go right ahead and pick up this one. A tale of beautiful friendships, hockey and delightful desserts, reading this will make your cheeks hurt from too much smiling and you will end it with a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings, while also rushing to find the webcomic to read what happens next. Don't miss it!! show less

I know pretty much nothing about ice hockey! I grew up in a land where hockey = the kind with rounded sticks and a round ball and is played in a field. Very different kind of hockey.
And to be honest, this book was requested from the library because I saw "Check, Please!" on the Reading The End blog and thought, oh, a comic set in a restaurant? Yes, please!Turned out to be a different kind of check all together. But this comic has now turned me into a.... well, not a complete turnaround into a hockey fan but at least someone who's curious now about hockey and wouldn't say no to watching a game!

I love that the main character is a newbie, a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team. Bittle (or Bitty as he's known) is a former figure show more skater, a baking aficionado (he makes pies!) and is gay but still hasn't come out yet. And the teammates he has! There's Shitty who's funny and smart and deep. Holster and Ransom are in an amazing bromance. Then there's Jack, the handsome captain with a sad past and who Bitty has the biggest ever crush on.


It reminds me of manga, mostly because of the way Bitty has such big eyes. And there's a cuteness to it that I would never associate with ice hockey.

So even if you don't care an inkling about ice hockey like I do, Check, Please! is a fun comic series to try out! Also it will make you hungry for pie. show less

This is the first book in the Check, Please! Series. It’s about a small town hockey player who goes to a bigger college and starts playing on the team there. It was a fun and touching read, but much more adult than I expected. It was well done and sweet. There is a lot of hockey, baking, and a bit of romance in here.

I gave this to my 11 year old son to read before I read it; I wouldn’t recommend doing that. This was quite a bit more adult than I thought it was going to be. It’s filed under middle grade in my library but is actually in a college setting. There’s a ton of swearing, some graphic sex talk, lots of drinking, some drugs, themes around overdose, and GLBTQ themes as well. I would recommend for older young adults. show more However, my son didn’t understand half of what was going on….he just mentioned how much swearing there was and how it was a bit weird that guys were kissing...so I guess no harm done.

This is very well done, very well drawn and fun to read. Despite everyone in my family playing hockey, I am not a huge hockey fan...so I probably won’t continue this. This is book goes into depth about the pressures of hockey and the team camaraderie but talked very little about how to balance that with other aspects of life...like school.

Overall very well done graphic novel about hockey, college, and growing up. I would recommend for older young adults or adults only; there is some pretty mature material in here. I wish there had been a bit more talk about how Eric balanced school with all his hockey commitments. I probably won’t continue the series because I am not a huge hockey fan and picked this up mainly for my son, who was a bit too young for this. show less

OMG! Totally adorable!

Sweet southerner Eric "Bitty" Bittle vlogs about his jump from figure skating in high school to playing hockey at a New England college. Oh, and pies, because he's a compulsive baker.

The five-page chapters are fun and humorous, and the last three leave you begging for the next volume.

This is the best Goodreads Giveaway I've ever won, and I just put it on the next book order for the library where I work.