1. Fortunately, the Milk

Fortunately, the Milk
By Neil Gaiman

Illustrated by Skottie Young

Harper Collins Children's Books, 2013
Narrated by Neil Gaiman

Genre
Sci-fi, Humor

Honors

• A Globe & Mail 100 Selection: Young Adult (2013)

Review

When a father is left to care for his two children while his wife is away for a few days, the children wake up in the morning to find they have no milk for their cereal.  The father goes to the store to get milk and is gone for a long time, but when he returns, he tells the children the amazing events that happened to him on his way home.  This is a humorous book about travels through space and time in a hot-air balloon with Professor Steg, the stegosaurus.  During his travels, the father escapes pirates, encounters a volcano god, outsmarts wumpires, and saves the planet from green globby aliens who want to redecorate it, all the while carrying a carton of milk.  The audio book, read by author Neil Gaiman, keeps the reader engrossed in the story, able to follow each character with their unique voices.  Young's illustrations are reminiscent of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein, creatively showing this father's adventure through space-time and what the children do while waiting for him to come home.  The typeface is lively and almost artistic on its own, curving around the illustrations and the letters dancing across the pages.

Opinion
I really enjoyed listening to and looking at this book.  If possible, I feel like that is the way to go as you will get the voices from the audio and the illustrations from the book.  However, I usually prefer reading to listening if I need to choose and would therefore prefer to read this book.

Ideas
I think children in middle to late elementary school will enjoy the goofiness of this book.  If children don't like reading, this book may be good for them to start with as the humor and fast-paced plot will draw them in so they'll finish reading before they even notice.