s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]'s Reviews > Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey

A book so cute people are trying to ban it at libraries. Literally. Check Please! by Nigerian-American author and illustrator Ngozi Ukazu is such an unbelievably cute and sweet YA graphic novel. A saccharine sweetness to be honest, but this is just a fun and adorable escapism of gay romance and hockey.The story focuses on supportive friendship and being true to your identity and the book is just a refreshing blast of positivity. One might be surprised, however, to learn it is the centerpiece of several library challenges in my local area lately, with an entire city council meeting being held to discuss possible removal of the book (read about it here). With the American Library Association stating they’ve ‘seen an uptick in challenges, constant challenges to materials dealing with LGBTQIA persons and experiences,’ (Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom with the ALA) it is important to protect books such as this as well as stand up for libraries and those who promote intellectual freedom and fairness of access for everyone. More on that in a moment, as Check Please is certainly a fun book and you should definitely go check it out from your local library.

Originating as a webcomic, Ukazu brings a fresh and colorful art style that changes to emphasize different storytelling moments in the book. It follows Eric "Bitty" Bittle, an adorably tiny and pure hockey player/vlogger/baker in his escapades on and off the ice. Much of the book surrounds the friendships and adventures in his fraternity where romance is slowly blooming with fellow player Jack. Ngozi Ukazu admits she didn’t know much about hockey before writing and while researching learned to really love the sport. Her approach is fascinating, as it seems to use the story as a study in male friendships and a sort of ‘bro’ culture. There’s a lot of focus on goofy guy antics and food blended with the lovely romance plot in a way that normalizes gay men within traditionally masculine roles. Which is all very cool.

So, curiously, for a book so cute and positive, it is getting a lot of calls for bannings. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund lists it as one of the graphic novels frequently challenged in 2020 and locally it keeps being used as an example book for calls to remove supposedly “indecent” books from public libraries, with some parents coming right out and asking to remove all LGBTQIA content. In my own library we had a patron ask to put “warning labels”, something obviously not appropriate as we want patrons, especially kids, to feel safe and secure and not singled out. The Library Bill of Rights clearly states libraries 'should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment'. On the heels of the attempted banning starting with Check Please at the library mentioned earlier, another nearby city also had elected officials try to completely bypass the library staff and ordered the township superintendent review and remove books. All of this is extremely troubling, especially when it appears to be coordinated and certain media outlets are quite literally encouraging parents to harass librarians into banning books, referring to many books, such as Check Please as pornography (the article, read at your own risk for massive eyerolling, is very inaccurate in the ways it discusses collection development, book challenges and the #bannedbooksweek, almost as if deliberate misinformation was the purpose of writing it).

Now, if you are worried about Check Please, I can assure you it isn’t pornographic. There’s barely a kiss. The reasons calling for removal were bad language (eye roll) and drinking. A brilliant coworker of mine made the point that, curiously, nobody complaining about the book mentions the ways the book does contain a decent amount of misogynistic jokes with all the locker room talk. But to be honest, this book is very tame, and mostly just super cute. And if you are worried about children getting it from the library, go with them. Or read it for yourself first. This isn’t on libraries to censor and wanting them to do so is troubling. We should be making libraries more inclusive and responding to the needs of everyone in the community, not limiting it to the specific wishes of some in ways that remove access for others. It's always a good idea to learn how collection development policies actually work too and remember that libraries are not and should not be neutral, because when they try to be it can be harmful. Lamba Legal has a great little pamphlet about preventing censorship in public libraries for LGBT information that is worth reading and makes the point showing incresed support for LGBT youth is essential in decreasing suicidal behavior and increased their general wellbeing. We need to protect these kids, and having a balanced collection that gives them plenty of support and information is a must.

Which brings me back to the book. In a Q&A with the author, she was asked about the ‘importance of positive stories in queer media’. Her response was wonderful:

’For the longest time, and even still to this day, any story that was considered a queer narrative was almost guaranteed to have a miserable ending; there is even this trope that any time there was a queer character in a story that that character wouldn’t last long. I just wanted to tell a story that was about coming out, about finding identity that didn’t necessarily mean that the character was going to be consumed by their angst and destroyed by their gloom. I felt like that’s a story I wanted to read and I felt that others wanted to read that as well. It’s important because there are not enough happy stories where a character gets to be queer and just exist and also get a happy ending.’

Support LGBT books, and if you don’t like them you can simply not read them, but don’t remove something that is often a lifeline for people. I know having books like this when I was younger would have made my life a lot easier, being able to identify and process my own identity, seeing positive representation instead of feeling shame and confusion. To admit that I was pansexual seemed like calling down all the hate of the world onto myself as a kid, or to be something wrong. So an adorable book like this combined with sports, exactly what I would have wanted. This book is fun, mostly fluff but fun and you should definitely check it out from your local library.
3.5/5