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    Fortunately, the Milk
    Fortunately, the Milk
    Fortunately, the Milk
    Ebook98 pages36 minutes

    Fortunately, the Milk

    By Neil Gaiman and Skottie Young

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    An absolute delight of a madcap story for the young (and young-at-heart) by New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with equal parts pirates and piranhas, adventure and aliens, oddity and love.

    "I bought the milk," said my father. "I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: t h u m m t h u m m. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road."

    "Hullo," I said to myself. "That's not something you see every day. And then something odd happened."

    Find 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 17, 2013
    ISBN9780062224095
    Author

    Neil Gaiman

    Neil Gaiman is the celebrated author of books, graphic novels, short stories, films, and television for readers of all ages. Some of his most notable titles include the highly lauded #1 New York Times bestseller Norse Mythology; the groundbreaking and award-winning Sandman comic series; The Graveyard Book (the first book ever to win both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals); American Gods, winner of many awards and recently adapted into the Emmy-nominated Starz TV series (the second season slated to air in 2019); The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which was the UK’s National Book Award 2013 Book of the Year. Good Omens, which he wrote with Terry Pratchett a very long time ago (but not quite as long ago as Don’t Panic) and for which Gaiman wrote the screenplay, will air on Amazon and the BBC in 2019. Author photo by Beowulf Sheehan

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    Reviews for Fortunately, the Milk

    4/5

    1,019 ratings111 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Mum ist für einige Tage nicht da und Dad ist mit den zwei Kindern allein zu Hause. Als die Frühstückszeit naht, stellt der Junge fest, dass die Milch fehlt. Doch was wären Cornflakes ohne Milch.Und so muss sich Dad auf den Weg machen. Doch das dauert ziemlich lange. Endlich schafft er es doch wieder nach Hause. Im Gepäck hat er eine großartige Geschichte, die irgendwas mit Dinosauriern, Ballons, Ponys,Vampiren und allerlei anderer mysteriöser Sachen zu tun hat. Doch das Wichtigste: Glücklicherweise konnte er die Milch retten.Neil Gaiman zählt wohl zu einer der bekanntesten Autoren unserer Zeit. Neben einigen Erwachsenenbüchern schreibt er gerne auch für Kinder. So hier geschehen. Das Buch ist noch nicht auf deutsch erschienen, aber wer der englischen Sprache auch nur ein bisschen mächtig ist, für den ist die Lektüre kein Problem.Fortunately, the milk ist eine süße Geschichte, die mit der Fantasie von Kindern spielt und die immer verrückter und kurioser wird, je länger sich Dad daran versucht. Der Leser hat Spaß an der Geschichte, freut sich über jede kleine Absurdität, denn Neil Gaiman ist ein großartiger Geschichtenerzähler, der sowohl Jung als auch Alt in seinen Bann zieht.In der amerikanischen Ausgabe wird das ganze illustriert durch den begnadeten Skottie Young, der auch die Marvel Comics zu der Zauberer von Oz zeichnet. Youngs spielerische Art zu zeichnen passt perfekt in die Geschichte, schafft Bilder, wie die eigene Fantasie sie nicht hätte besser ausmalen können. Mit seinem eigenen Stil und Charme zieht er den Leser in seine Welt.In der britischen Ausgabe illustriert der Künstler Chris Riddell Gaimans Geschichte. Die Zeichnungen wirken realistischer als die comichaften Darstellungen Youngs und schaffen nicht die Atmosphäre, wie es die amerikanische Ausgabe zeigt.Im Gegensatz zu Youngs Zeichnungen wirken diese fast starr.Deshalb meine Empfehlung: Unbedingt zur amerikanischen Ausgabe greifen und sich noch einmal in seine Kindheit zurückversetzen lassen.
    • 4/5
      Delightful!
    • 3/5
      A hilarious romp.
    • 2/5
      Don't trust my rating - I'm the kind of person who never likes wildly unbelievable books that just jump from one ridiculous stretch of imagination to another. This would be a great book for Captain Underpants readers. And I can't hate it that badly since I DID purchase it for our library shelves.
    • 4/5
      Also one I was surprised to see in my library's eCatalog. However, I think this works better as a paper book. There are some nice illustrations that go along with it, that are really too small in eBook form to be appreciated. The story is one Neil Gaiman is famous for -- an ordinary schlub gets caught up in whimsical adventures with weird, funny stuff. This time it takes a page from Roald Dahl. And while it's got plenty of funny bits, I don't feel it's destined to become a classic. Also, I'm not sure some of the more complex subjects (time travel and quantum mechanics figure heavily into the plot) will go under the heads of the target audience. I would never want someone to dumb things down for kids, but I feel like only a small portion of its readers will appreciate it. But that's no reason not to try.
    • 4/5
      I love any sort of time travel story, and this one was great fun. It's an easy read and bits about passing of the milk back and forth through time is really inventive. I also liked that the father isn't aloof and is both willing to listen to his children and to meet them on their level, and that even when it appears that he's aloof he's really paying attention to his wife's every word. It's a welcome respite from the usual presentation in the media of fathers who can't handle childcare or house care and are just bumbling fools when they're away from "man's work". Fortunately, I was given this book; fortunately, I read it; and fortunately, I'm recommended you do the same.
    • 5/5
      Mom is gone to a conference, and although she has left frozen meals and plenty of instructions for Dad, there is nothing to put on the breakfast cereal except for orange juice. So Dad heads out to buy some milk while brother and sister wait and wait. . . and wait. When he finally returns, Dad doesn't just have milk, but a tall tale about time travel and dinosaurs and wumpires and more. Gaiman tells incredible stories, and this time he has teamed up with cartoonist Scottie Young to create a book that's perfect for the younger readers (upper elementary?). My fourth grade son read this to himself and liked it so much that he read it to me too!
    • 5/5
      Listened to the audio book with my boys (ages 8 & 10). They loved it, and both said I should give it 5 stars. Can't argue with that.
    • 4/5
      Neil Gaiman can do no wrong. A great book for elementary school kids. Very whimsical!
    • 3/5
      Fortunately, the Milk is a frothy concoction from Neil Gaiman, targeted to the 3-7 age group and illustrated by Skottie Young] It raises the age old question of how is a dad to explain his being late returning from an errand. The answer combines a clever shaggy dog story with an undercurrent from the movie The Usual Suspects. If you like Gaiman's books, you'll probably find this whimsical fun. If you don't like Gaiman's books, you'll probably find it a load of bilge.
    • 5/5
      Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman is a wonderfully wacky little story about a dad who runs to the corner store to get some milk, and has a few adventures on the way home. Poor old Dad is abducted by aliens, travels through time and space with a stegosaurus, sails with pirates, and faces everything from ponies to piranhas. Fortunately, the milk gets home safely (along with Dad), and it may even have saved the world somewhere along the way!I really wasn't sure what to expect from this book -- I generally like Gaiman's writing for children, though I am ambivalent about his other works, so I approach anything new with a cautious sort of curiosity. In this case, I got a pleasant surprise. I gulped this brief book down in one sitting, and it made me smile and even laugh more than once. Fortunately, the Milk is delightful, and I think it will work particularly well as a read-aloud.
    • 5/5
      Joy's Review: A totally fun kids book about what happens to dad when he goes out to get some milk for their breakfast cereal. Great illustrations to support Dad's story of time travel a Professioral Stegosaurs and some green blobs from outer space that want to redecorate Earth.
    • 5/5
      A fantastically funny tale with astonishing illustrations by Chris Riddell!
    • 5/5
      I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s work and was excited to read this most recent kid’s book by him. It was very funny, with wonderful illustrations, and was just very well done.When mom goes away to a conference for work, dad is left in charge of the kids. However dad forgets to get more milk, so he leaves to do so and is gone for a long time. However, when he does get back he has quite the story about why it took him so long. It’s a story that involve aliens, pirates, dinosaurs, angry natives, and...of course...piranhas.I read this book with my six year old son. He got a kick out of it and so did my husband (who was listening in). It’s a very funny story. This is basically a way over one version of that whopper of a story your dad told about the time when he…..Basically the dad fabricates an elaborate and fantastic story about when it took him so long to get that darn milk. The kids of course know that he is absolutely full of it. But as things go on they are not so sure. The end of the book throws a little twist at you and makes you wonder if maybe it wasn’t a story after all….The illustration throughout is really really well done. I enjoyed it a lot. Some of the writing is done as illustration as well (not typed). It’s all very creative and makes for a very nice package overall. The book as a whole is just very well put together and high quality.Overall an excellent read for all ages. Adult and kids alike will enjoy this book. I mean what is not to like? It has pirate, ponies, aliens, dinosaurs and even not-so-sparkly vampires. It has crazy inventions, adventure, time travel, and piranhas. Highly recommended to everyone and a super fun read.
    • 4/5
      This is an unusually lighthearted book for Neil Gaiman, an author whose work usually verges on horror. There are vampires and aliens who threaten to take over the world but the tone is always whimsical. The book takes its structure from the rambling tall tales told by parents as well as perhaps nonsense poetry; I definitely sensed the influence of Edward Lear in parts. This makes it a refreshing and fun read, although it might seem a bit lightweight in comparison to Neil Gaiman's other works.Chris Riddell's illustrations in the UK edition are marvelous, contain the funniest parts of the book,and add a great deal to the read. Anyone who enjoys well-written silliness will no doubt get a kick out of this little book.
    • 4/5
      Amusing light fantasy and a good choice for bedtime reading, though a little expensive for how short a story it is. I think I probably would've liked the UK version's illustrations better -- the pictures of the tribal characters in this are definitely politically incorrect.
    • 5/5
      With his two kids telling him that there is no milk for their breakfast cereal, Dad walks down to the corner store and buys a bottle. But then he is sucked into an alien spaceship, which leads him to a pirate ship, a time-traveling dinosaur, tribesmen looking for a sacrifice and a city of hungry wumpires. All the dad wants to do is get the kids their milk.The illustrations by Skottie Young fit perfectly with this adventure story. It seems like a bed-time story a parent with an extremely good imagination would tell their kids for that "Look what I go through for you," moment at the end.
    • 5/5
      Having finished the book, I sat it down on the table for my dad to ready next. He said, “you finished the whole book?” I replied, “I finished the whole book.” Daddy corrected, “No you didn’t. You giggled through the whole book.”This is the story of a father who went out to get the milk and came back a little later than his kids would have liked. They assumed he just got held up taking with a neighbor, but no. He went on an adventure involving a stegosaurus in a hot air balloon time machine, pirates, aliens, wumpires, and cannibals. Fortunately, he and the milk survived. Why are you still reading this? Go get the book now!
    • 3/5
      Cute and funny, but for a younger audience. This book would be great read aloud to early graders. I chuckled a few times, but wasn't blown away.
    • 4/5
      Droll, quirky, eccentric. This is just the kind of inventive story to liven up the imaginations of 3-5th graders. The zany pencil illustrations by Skottie Young added just the right touch.
    • 3/5
      Okay. As a big Neil Gaiman fan, I was pleasantly surprised to discover this one unexpectedly. I've just knocked it over in one very short sitting, and I have to say, it reads like a cross between Douglas Adams and that game kids play where each person adds a random sentence in order to make a story. I found it merely okay...BUT I am not in the target age group for this book, and I honestly think middle readers will thoroughly enjoy this offering.
      Riddell's illustrations add greatly to the experience ... And am I mistaken in thinking that the father in the story looks suspiciously like the author himself?
      Definitely recommended reading for those in the 8 - 12 years age bracket.
    • 4/5
      After reading Neil Gaiman’s latest, it appears that Mr. Gaiman was trying to dissuade any doubts that he might be lacking an imagination (although anyone familiar with his previous work, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, or The Sandman Series could never think such a ludicrous thing). Fortunately, The Milk is imaginative on the level of a fever dream; silly and kooky, with events happening so quickly and jumping so erratically from one outrageous situation to the next that the reader may find themselves exhausted by the book’s end. Fortunately, the Milk is guided by an elaborate tale concocted by the father of two children, who, while Mom is away, was tasked with one simple errand: to purchase the titular milk. Attempting to describe what happens between the father’s departure and his return runs the risk of spoiling the joyful ridiculousness of his adventures. Readers transitioning to chapter books will find it hard to be bored by this story, yet it may prove a little hard for inexperienced readers to keep events in order.In the interest of full disclosure, this reviewer must admit that she may have been swayed by the striking similarities between this tale and the nighttime stories that were improvised by her father when she was small. With that in mind, Fortunately, the Milk may also be a good gift for any parent who shares this characteristic, to thank them for their efforts no matter how many times it made the listeners roll their eyes.
    • 5/5
      A father goes to the store to buy milk for his children’s breakfast but ends up getting a lot more adventure than he bargained for. The story is framed by the son’s point of view but is mostly told by the father to his children. The book has a lot of time travel, which is pretty rare in a chapter book for young readers and shows Gaiman’s respect for his audience’s intelligence. Though the plot and vocabulary maybe be a little tricky, there is not as much text as a middle grade book. This could be a transitional chapter book for a child who has an interest in science fiction.The illustrations are incredibly whimsical and appealing. The details and curves amp up the playfulness of this book. Images are arranged in interesting ways to break up the text for young chapter book readers. The use of different fonts adds to the silliness of everything. The characters are very cartoony, with exaggerated features. Illustrations of some native people seem to compile many stereotypes, but otherwise there is nothing objectionable here. For the right reader, this book could spark further interest in science fiction and in reading bigger novels.
    • 4/5
      Ages 8-12.Mom is out of town and there is no milk in the fridge for breakfast. Dad goes out to the corner store to buy some. He returns with a fantastic tale of having been waylaid by home re-decorating aliens, pirates, “wumpires,” an angry volcano god and a time-traveling, literal-minded stegosaurus in a hot air balloon. Readers who agree to take a leap of faith on this wonderfully odd tale will be rewarded. Gaiman handles the disjointed nature of a broken time-space continuum deftly yet not too seriously. The way that the disparate pieces of the narrative click into place is quite satisfying. The milk, as the title suggests, is key to many zany solutions.Young’s ink illustrations heighten the inanity of the story. They are purposefully messy yet fascinating in the same vein as the whimsical tale. Readers will want to pause and examine Young’s depictions, including his representations of the quirkily garbed pirate queen, the bizarre mechanisms of the hot air balloon, and eerie “wumpires” with craning necks and funky teeth. Gaiman gives readers an eccentric, gleeful celebration of family storytelling. He encourages storytellers’ to keep spinning their imaginative tales, whether the audience is skeptical or believing. A delightful read. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      The story of a father's brave quest to bring home a bottle of milk. Neil Gaiman's words and Skottie Young's pictures add up to a whimsical adventure filled with space dinosaurs, "wumpires", globs of space goo, and the (maybe, possibly) end of the universe.I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan, and this didn't disappoint me even a little. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Nicely absurd. Could be amusing if read out loud well. Good opportunity to be silly.
    • 5/5
      This is a very short read...I think the best way of describing this book is fun!
    • 5/5
      Whimsical story with adorable illustrations - imagine it's perfect for reading aloud in silly voices. Lovely book to help me start off 2014 with a smile.
    • 5/5
      Our gang all enjoyed this yarn but feel that Mrs Gaiman on her return should check out how long Neil was chatting to the girl on the checkout when he bought the milk, 'cos we don't believe a word of it. Further . . . How did Chris Riddell the artist manage to draw all the characters if he wasn’t there on the adventure? (Very fishy) Us boys all fell in love with MAD MATILDA the girl buccaneer, even though we only have a glimpse of her in the rigging in the story. Does she have a fan club? Five stars.
    • 4/5
      This is an adorable little book, begging to be shared with a youngster curled up next to you in a comfy chair. It is about a family whose mother has gone on a trip and left the narrator and his sister alone with their father. The only maternal direction he failed to follow was to get some milk so he goes out in the morning to the corner store. It takes him quite a while (according to the kids) to return and they demand an explanation. Which he provides.It seems he encountered aliens, a stegosaurus in a hot air balloon, pirates, and natives with a volcano god but he always managed to hang on to the milk to bring to his children.My only problem with the book is that I would have preferred a larger format. I would love to read it aloud to a class but the pictures are too small to hold up in front of an audience. It is delicious to read aloud, however.

    Book preview

    Fortunately, the Milk - Neil Gaiman

    Begin Reading

    There was only orange juice in the fridge. Nothing else that you could put on cereal, unless you think that ketchup or mayonnaise or pickle juice would be nice on your Toastios, which I do not, and neither did my little sister, although she has eaten some pretty weird things in her day, like mushrooms in chocolate.*

    No milk, said my sister.

    Nope, I said, looking behind the jam in the fridge, just in case. None at all.

    Our mum had gone off to a conference. She was presenting a paper on lizards. Before she went, she reminded us of the important things that had to happen while she was away.

    My dad was reading the paper. I do not think he pays a lot of attention to the world while he is reading his paper.

    Did you hear me? asked my mum, who is suspicious. What did I say?

    Do not forget to take the kids to Orchestra Practice on Saturday; it’s Violin on Wednesday night; you’ve frozen a dinner for each night you’re away and labeled them; the spare house-key is with the Nicolsons; the plumber will be here on Monday morning and do not use or flush the upstairs toilet until he’s been; feed the goldfish; you love us and you’ll be back on Thursday, said my father.

    I think my mum was surprised. Yes, that’s right, she said. She kissed us all. Then she said, Oh, and we’re almost out of milk. You’ll need to pick some up.

    After she went away, my dad had a cup of tea. There was still some milk left.

    We defrosted Meal Number One, but we made a bit of a mess of things, so we went to the Indian restaurant. Before we went to sleep, Dad made us mugs of hot chocolate to make up for the whole Missing of Mum.

    That was last night.

    Now Dad came in. Eat your cereal, he said. Remember, it’s Orchestra Practice this afternoon.

    We can’t eat our cereal, said my sister, sadly.

    I don’t see why not, said my father. We’ve got plenty of cereal. There’s Toastios and there’s muesli. We have bowls. We have spoons. Spoons are excellent. Sort of like forks, only not as stabby.

    No milk, I said.

    No milk, said my sister.

    I watched my dad think about this. He looked like he was going to suggest that we have something for breakfast that you do not need milk for, like sausages, but then he looked like

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