His books are atmospheric and dark, they cleverly play off genre tropes, they show us old things through a new lens. Now that I got all of the praise out of the way, let me tell you what disappointed me a little. The only thing that would make this an even better book would be full color illustrations. Scottie Young’s characters are little more than stick figures with big heads on top, but their faces are expressive and wonderful and just fun – just look with how much love for detail the hair is drawn. His drawings are intricate and full of flourishes and twirly bits… I stared at them for minutes at a time. While you will find Chris Riddell’s wonderful art in the UK version (I loved his images in The Graveyard Book to bits!), the US version shows off Scottie Young’s amazing skill. The UK and US editions of Fortunately, the Milk are illustrated by different artists. There are some wonderfully quirky bits, some parts that will be funnier to adults than to children, and – my favorite thing about the entire book – gorgeous illustrations. But, being an adult, I scrutinized the logic behind Gaiman’s time travel (and don’t go telling me time travel can’t be logical in its own way) and it all holds up. Sure, you never have to remember for longer than a few pages what time the protagonists have just left and when a second version of themselves suddenly show up to steal the milk – or give it back. That said, I commend Neil Gaiman for putting so much time travel in this book. Not only is it full of illustrations and has fun with fonts, but it is also a very simple story that is probably as much fun being read to as reading for oneself.

The father’s absence is explained in full and reminded a bit of The Usual Suspects for kids.

What they don’t know, of course, is that their dad went on a wacky, time-travel adventure featuring dinosaurs, aliens, wumpires, and piranhas. The children find that it takes him surprisingly long to return. When a motherless-for-the-weekend family find themselves in lack of any milk for their breakfast cereal and tea, one brave father steps outside to buy some at the corner shop. And then something odd happened.”įind out just how odd things get in this hilarious story of time travel and breakfast cereal, expertly told by Newbery Medalist and bestselling author Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Skottie Young. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road.” “I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: T h u m m t h u m m. It was fun, it was silly, and I would have loved to have read this as a child.įirst sentence: There was only orange juice in the fridge. Finally, I could sit down with a book and read it in one sitting without such annoying things as work interrupting me. I have been insanely busy lately, so this slim and heavily illustrated children’s book by Neil Gaiman came at the perfect time.

Neil gaiman milk