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Fortunately, the Milk
Published by HarperAudio
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"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.
Book Actions
Start ListeningBook Information
Fortunately, the Milk
Published by HarperAudio
Description
"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.
Reviews
Charming. Neil Gaiman at his most whimsical. The illustrations by Skottie Young are perfect
Rating: 5When their Mum goes off to a conference, a brother and his younger sister are left at home with their absent-minded Dad. When there's no milk for cereal, Dad goes to the corner store to get some and takes absolute ages. When he returns he tells the tale of the epic quest he had bringing the milk back home.On just the right side of ridiculous, this children's book is a delight for all ages. Gaiman crafts an excellent adventure tale with plenty of humour that feels a bit Douglas Adams-esque and the illustrations by Skottie Young are utterly charming. Whether you're a kid, reading it to a child in your life, or reading it as someone who is no longer a child, there's plenty to enjoy.
Rating: 4Our 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.
Rating: 5This was a cute, quick read. Definitely suited for younger readers, even ones who are maybe just learning to read, as this is a good one to listen to. The illustrations (done by Skottie Young in my edition) are really what make it. I'd love to see this as a larger book, with glossy pages and full color illustrations. I'm glad I have it for my collection, but it's not one I'll be rereading.
Rating: 3A classic shaggy dog story. Enjoyable to read aloud with W and most likely I won't seek it out for another reading.
Rating: 3We listened to this with the kids on a road trip this weekend, once in each direction. The narrator is a boy whose Dad goes out to buy milk at the corner store and after a long absence returns with an outlandish tale of where he'd been. His adventures include encounters with aliens in flying saucers, pirates, vampires, colorful ponies, and traveling as a companion to Professor Steg, a very wise stegosaurus. They travel through time, escape an erupting volcano, and never fail to hold on to the milk, all while on board a Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier (a.k.a. a hot air balloon). It's all delightfully silly and a good follow-up to our previous favorite audio book for road trips, Gaiman's The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, which very likely features the same family.
Rating: 4I am eating dry cereal without the milk.
Rating: 4Thoroughly delightful. A sort of Hitchhiker's Guide for children. Absurd and hilarious.
Rating: 5I loved this book. My dad may not have told such stories after going to get milk, but he is definitely the kind who would. This book is the perfect tribute to fatherly trolling. And it has everything that a dad coming up with a story on the spot would have. Dinosaurs. Pirates. Aliens. Time travel. Vampires. All mixed up and told with just the barest possible covering of logic. And the kid's interruptions are exactly what the reader is thinking. And what can you say, when your dad says "well, this is what happened"? You just have to accept it and try to catch him later, when he's least expecting it. This book captures perfectly the best parts of the teasing that kids and dads share. Reading this book evoked memories of the crazy stories told to us by my dad and grandpa. Helping J.K Rowling write Harry Potter. Knowing the real Harry Potter. Stories with Star Wars, Star Trek and Planet of the Apes mixed in. All backed up with little gadgets and details. Read this book to your kids. Or make up a story just as good. Read this book as an adult and remember those times your dad told an awesome story you didn't believe, but then turned out to be absolutely true because your dad was really cool before you were born.
Rating: 5A sweet, clever, magical story delightfully narrated by the author. It's just under an hour long, and totally worth the time :)
Rating: 4OK. Favorite book this year! (and this year had some goodies). Must, must, must be read aloud.
Many times.
:)
Rating: 5Many times.
:)
Have to give this book full marks for its liveliness. Introduced to it on a course in York where I read out the pages featuring the pirates. What is ingenious though is what is in it for all readers - children and adults alike - which is the back story of what we now understand to be the physical reality of our universe with its paradoxical parallel worlds and other dimensions. This makes for very neat plotting and twists. Like all good children's books when you read as an adult alone you are still aware of children following the words. Excellent.
Rating: 5I bought this book at a school book fair. I meant it for my son, but I ended up reading it. I thought the book was "classic Gaiman" in the best way. Fun, clever writing, which is his style. It is also a great "Dad's story" about his adventures when he was out buying milk. The artwork I was a little put off by, at first, but now I really like it. I see where the style fits perfectly with the book.
Rating: 5Very fun read with amusing anecdotal story structure by Gaiman, even more brilliant art by Skottie Young. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who likes shaggy dog stories.
Rating: 4A cute and appropriate listen for making supper.
Rating: 4Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Skottie Young is simply delightful. It's hard for me to decide which was more enjoyable: the writing or the drawings. Honestly, I think that the reason I enjoyed this book so much was that the two of them paired so well together. This is exactly the kind of story that an imaginative parent would tell their child and embellish over time. The main character of this book is a father who is left alone to watch the kids and who goes out to get milk for breakfast and takes forever to get back home.When he finally returns he spins an impossible yarn to explain his tardiness to his extremely skeptical children. Anyone who has read Gaiman's writing knows that he's an absolutely wonderful fantasy author but it's his sense of humor that makes this book unique. Maybe you've heard of 'dad jokes' before? Well, this is basically one big dad joke accompanied by super cute ink illustrations. 10/10 on all fronts.I absolutely love the illustrations by Skottie Young. This is another one of those books where you want to hang up the illustrations on the wall of your house...at least I do.
Rating: 5Delightful!
Rating: 4Illustrated by Chris RiddellWell, as excuses for taking too long over the groceries, this is up there :0)When a mother has to go off for a conference to present a paper on lizards, two children are left without milk for their cereal even though she reminded their dad that it was running out. This is the story, from the boy's point of view, of the tale that their dad told of why it took him so long to get milk from the corner shop. Delightfully silly, it involves snotty aliens, time travelling dinosaurs, an ancient volcano god, purple dwarves and the end of the universe (amongst other things). Oh, and wumpires. (I love the wumpires. So to speak.) Fortunately, the milk survives all these adventures (and that's not a spoiler, because the milk makes its entrance at the beginning of the story).This is a short, snappy book which I inadvertantly read in one go. Admittedly, it is aimed at children, with a lot of atmospheric illustrations by Chris Riddell (whose style I recognise from Beyond the Deepwoods, which I read earlier this year) including some wonderful quite gross aliens and a father who looks suspiciously like Neil Gaiman.It does start off with very short, choppy sentences, which is a style I associate with readers for young children and it makes it a bit hard to get into, to start with, but it gets going when Gaiman hits his stride, around the time that Dad is teaching pirates how to make him walk the plank. It's all very light (but certainly not fluffy), and keeps you smiling all the way through, even when the kids poke holes in Dad's story.'Hang on. He was a Stegosaurus?''Yes.''Then how could he just nip up a rope ladder?''He was,' said my father, 'a large Stegosaurus, but very light on his feet.'I love Riddell's illustration of Splod, which perfectly expresses:"If two things that are the same thing touch," proclaimed the volcano god, "then the whole Universe shall end. Thus sayeth the great and unutterable Splod.""How does a volcano know so much about trans-temporal meta-science?" asked one of the pale green aliens."Being a geological formation gives you a lot of time to think," said Splod. "Also, I subscribe to a lot of learned journals."And I want to point out, in case you missed it,(Madam? I thought, embarassed.)Fun. Worth a read.4****... I wonder how fresh time-travelled milk is?...
Rating: 4Fortunately the Milk is a bout a father who goes out to by milk for his children when he is (supposedly) abducted by aliens and then jumps into a time portal. First he meets the Queen Pirate and her crew who make him walk the plank. He is the saved by a Stegosauruses in a hot air balloon named Professor Steg. They then travel in time trying to get the father back home but instead travel to the time of tribal people. These tribal people worshiped a giant volcano with a face. They also have a prophecy that if a man comes to them and holds up a milk they shall give them the emerald eye of the volcano. This makes the volcano angry so they go back in time and replace the eye but take the other one that they later get from there past self, they are assured the plan would work by a herd of pones. They then travel to the Wumpires who try to eat them so they speed up time to burn them in the sun. They then finally make it back to the fathers house but are stopped by the aliens who want to remodel the world into scented candles, porcine plates, and pillows. To force the alien to leave the father threatens to touch the milk he still has with the one of his previous self. This would cause all of space and time to be destroyed. But before the aliens could leave the Galactic Police (who are a bunch of dinosaurs) arrest the aliens for remodeling planets. Unfortunately after the dinosaurs victory dance and songs the father slips and touches the two milks which instead of ending all of space and time summons Dwarfs with flower pots on their head who dance and then disappear. Then the father goes and gives his children the milk. The children are skeptical about his father story but are happy to have milk. There are a few reasons of why I liked this book. One, this book because it was weird. It was also a little confusing with the whole space-time thing but that made it interesting. Two, It was pretty funny with the weird names that were in the book. Three, this book has good imagery description. To conclude I like this book this book because it's weird, it's funny, and it has good imagery.
Rating: 5A hilarious romp.
Rating: 3I wasn't all that taken with the book. It's a fine childrens tale, and we're i 5 years old it would feel just as silly as alice in wonderland, but fortunatly, the milk saved it.
Rating: 4Incredible short story with a lot of imagination put into it. Neil Gaiman never ceases to surprise!
Rating: 5Great for a distraction at work! Loved listening while I did mind numbing computer tasks.
Rating: 5
Cute and imaginative children's story. Good for a bedtime read
Rating: 4So funnny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it . Greatest parental excuse ever
Rating: 5
Beautiful. Just beautiful. Neil gaiman cann always keep a good balance of silly and interesting.
Rating: 5
A lovely lighthearted make believe story. All my kids enjoyed it for quiet time.
Rating: 4Dad is having to look after two children as he wife is away for the day, and they have run out of milk. Off he pops to go and buy some more, and he is a long time returning. When his children ask where he has been, her counts a tale of time travel, pirates, aliens, savages and hot air balloons.
I wouldn't normally read children's books, but I want to read more of Neil Gaiman's books, and my daughter had got this from the library. A great little children's book, made particularly special by the drawings of Chris Riddell.
Rating: 3I wouldn't normally read children's books, but I want to read more of Neil Gaiman's books, and my daughter had got this from the library. A great little children's book, made particularly special by the drawings of Chris Riddell.
O livro mais divertido que li nos ultimos tempos!
É uma leitura muito gostosa e super rapidinha. A narração do Neil Gaiman no audiobook tornou tudo ainda mais encantador.
Como não adorar a história de um pai humano que sai para comprar leite para seus filhos e encontra todo tipo de criatura peculiar no caminho? Aliens, dinossauros espaciais e piratas em um balão voador... Me parece a combinação perfeita.
Rating: 5É uma leitura muito gostosa e super rapidinha. A narração do Neil Gaiman no audiobook tornou tudo ainda mais encantador.
Como não adorar a história de um pai humano que sai para comprar leite para seus filhos e encontra todo tipo de criatura peculiar no caminho? Aliens, dinossauros espaciais e piratas em um balão voador... Me parece a combinação perfeita.
Good story for young adults. Takes a bit of imagination to read
Rating: 5