Bloomsbury Fortunately, the Milk . . .

Another entertaining children's story by Neil Gaiman. This was a follow up to The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and features the dad going to the store to buy his children some milk for breakfast. Only, he is gone for way too long and takes ages to come home. When he gets home, the children ask him what took him so long and he embarks on this great story of how he was on his way home but was abducted by aliens and so on and so forth, from aliens to pirates to dinosaurs, he regales the children with his adventures as he tried to make his way back home to them.And then the end, with the little twist, was a clever little ending to the story.

A cheerful and fun kids' book but not as complex as his other books. I'm sorry, because I know he's a national treasure and I loved The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. This book was much shorter and probably aimed at younger kids than his other books. It was a very quick and light read. The humour is more light and zany. After reading the other NG books I felt "Wow!" and had to collect my thoughts. After reading this - "nice entertainment for the kids", but no "wow" moment.

I bought 2 of these for my grandsons aged 6 and 7 as part of their Christmas present. They havent had them yet but I have read the book several times and it is a delight. My daughter ordered one for herself ...she's in her 40's after reading one of them too. The story is a great romp if you are going to be reading it to your children. If they are old enough they will love reading the story themselves and the illustrations are amazing too.It is nice that for once the hero of the story is the Dad too.

I think the publisher should immediately print up some "Fortunately, the Milk" t-shirts with a logo and the quote, "Where There's Milk, There's Hope!"I only love me some Neil Gaiman (comics, novels, short stories AND, best of all, children's books -- prose type or picture books, doesn't matter).I enjoyed the hell out of OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, and I thought CHU'S DAY OUT was so cute I bought a copy for a friend, but my pick for BEST NEIL GAIMAN BOOK OF 2013 (and maybe the best book of the century) is definitely, FORTUNATELY, THE MILK.My daughter -- who read it after me -- swears Mr. Gaiman has been following me around for the last decade or so (apparently I, too, stop and talk to local shop persons and even strangers, often returning HOURS after I'm expected back; and I seem to have a propensity for telling whoppers).I don't want to dissect it any further, because that would be like pulling the wings off of a mayfly, but I would like to say that I only loved Prof. Steg and the Wumpires. And I only love those last lines from dad, about how he can prove it all really happened. :)Personally, I LOVE the Chris Riddell illustrations in the British edition the most (I also have a copy of the U.S. version, illustrations by Skottie Young). This book has been on the (Middle age Chilren's) NYTimes bestseller list for two months and counting and deservedly so! It's just whimsical as hell, and does a great job displaying both the sense of wonder and the craft inherent in the act of story-telling.Now, I must traverse the staircase in our home, past Austrialio-pithecine-like spiders, being careful not to awaken the six-foot plus Kangaroo which often sleeps near our doorstep at nights (we call him Kongaroo) and go in search of something to drink. Fortunately, there's chocolate milk in the fridge.

This is a great book - great paced, funny and very well written. Everything you would expect from Neil Gaiman. I would say it is aimed at children aged 5-8 years. My son loved it - it contains everything children of this age group are fascinated by: pirates, vampires, dinosaurs, scientists....plus a pint of milk. It has good sized font and plenty of pictures to help reluctant readers through. A great story, highly recommended.