Title: Fortunately, the Milk
Author: Neil Gaiman, Skottie Young (Illustrator)
Type: Illustrated book
My Rating:⭐⭐
Genre: Children Literature, Fiction, Time travel, Science fiction
This is my first Neil Gaiman book. I’m not sure if I would have picked this book on my own, if not for Bibilioraptor book club event of the month as Illustrated books. I had heard some wonderful reviews on this book; however, I may stand in the minority category when it comes to my opinion.
Plot: Fortunately, The Milk is a quick middle-grade read about a Dad who goes out to buy some milk one morning and arrives back to his children a little later than they would have liked. To entertain them, he tells them a story of his adventure involving the milk. There are dinosaurs, aliens, pirates… yep, lots more strange characters and events are included.
I have liked several children books previously; however, this wasn’t my cup of tea. It’s an extremely short read. When I saw the illustration, I got excited to tell about this story to my son. Skottie Young’s expressive illustration style was the thing that kept me turning the pages. The story is kinda cute, but hard to believable. Story seemed rushed and haphazardly slapped together.
I didn’t feel any connection with characters. I think children’s books are especially hard to write because like short stories, the window you have to involve your audience and make the characters important to them is so small. Illustration is the best part of this book. If not for that, then I wouldn’t even have gotten into the Dinosaur world which has aliens, time machine, hot air balloon, vampires, pirates etc. I honestly think, even my son will have hard time mustering up empathy for the milk situation.
This may not be the best book of Neil Gaiman to start with, I may check out some of his other stuff.
Buy link : https://www.amazon.in/Fortunately-Milk-Neil-Gaiman/dp/1408841797/
Source: Courtesy of Biblioraptor book club
Connect with book club here: https://thebiblioraptor.com/
Great review. And glad that you found the book just as it was meant to be. In the preface Gaiman mentions that his father would’ve loved to tell the story but his son wouldn’t have believed it. And the father did haphazardly slap the story together from the pictures and toys that his children made and owned. Even the narrator and his sister don’t believe the story. I wish I could enjoy it more this way when I read it rather than being all about how the demythologization was wonderful.😅 And about the illustratons, I would love to hear what you thing of Riddell’s illustrations of the same.
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Thanks Ankit. I would love to know more about your different layered perspective. I never thought that this book could have more depth to it. I looked at it more as a fable book. Awaiting for our BOTM discussion to hear your thoughts.. I haven’t checked Riddell’s illustration yet, I will have look at that soon.
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