What the Puck: A Slam-Dunk Conversation

Ngozi Ukazu is the creator of Check, Please, an online graphic novel whose printing campaign remains the most funded webcomics Kickstarter ever. She first became interested in hockey while writing a screenplay about the sport during her senior year at Yale. But after Yale hockey won the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey national championship, she became obsessed. While she used her new-found knowledge of ice hockey to launch Check, Please in 2013, Ngozi has a deep interest in many sports, from half-marathon training to basketball documentaries. Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones (First second) is a collection of the second half of the mega-popular webcomic series of the same name. Eric Bittle is heading into his junior year at Samwell University, and he has new teammates and a brand new boyfriend. Bitty and Jack must navigate their new, secret, long-distance relationship, and decide how to reveal their relationship to friends and teammates. And on top of that, Bitty’s time at school is coming to an end. These are two hockey seasons packed with big wins and high stakes. Kirkus Reviews called it “An upbeat story of love and acceptance.”

Gene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. His graphic novels include American Born Chinese; his two-volume Boxers & Saints; Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series (with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. In his latest graphic novel, Dragon Hoops, (First Second) Yang turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the high school where he teaches. Gene understands stories—comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Big thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn’t get sports. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it’s all anyone can talk about. The men’s varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that’s been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championships. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he’s seen on a comic book page. He has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn’t know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons’s lives, but his own life as well. In a starred review Booklist praised Yang as “an extraordinary cartoonist…through recurring visual motifs that connect a