June children's bookclub choice: Fortunately The Milk by Neil Gaiman - apply for free copy!

[RachelMumsnet]

Neil Gaiman was recently described by the Sunday Times as 'the nearest thing children's books have to a Rock Star' and 2 million twitter followers are proof of his cult status. Fortunately the Milk... is a departure from many of his darker more macabre children's stories (think Coraline, The Graveyard book) but equally as fantastical and inventive.

A dad who nips out to buy a pint of milk is delayed by, among other things, dinosaurs, time travel and 'green globby things'. With superbly anarchic illustrations from Chris Riddell, this is perfect bedtime reading for children aged 8 + as well as Gaiman-fan parents (a great gift for Father's Day).

See Neil Gaiman reading an extract and if you fancy reading this with your Dcs apply for one of 50 free copies.

Everyone who accesses a free copy will be asked to post a review, join the discussion on this thread and/or tweet about the book using #Mumsnetbookclub.

Our copy arrived yesterday as well, and DS took it to bed with him. This is our next bedtime reading (as soon as we finish Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). DS loved the pictures and is very excited. I'll post more once we read it. In the meantime, thanks a lot.

I've got my copy, thank you! I haven't read it yet, but I've looked at the first page and the chocolate mushroom story made me laugh.

Will post the review asap.

Wow what a fab book, my Jakey couldn't put it down. So full of fun and witty, with lovely illustrations.

jj21 is spot on with silly and unbelievable - but they're the main reasons why this book is such rattlingly good fun.

It's quite a departure from some of Neil Gaiman's other, more contemplative, children's books that are written for a similar age group, such as The Graveyard Book, Od and the Frost Giants and Coraline (all of which I've read and enjoyed). That is not a bad thing; Fortunately, The Milk is an absurd and witty old-fashioned adventure that careers along at breakneck speed. Neil Gaiman must have had fun writing it, although it may not have seemed like it was fully under his control sometimes!

The premise itself is clever, a Dad telling his children about the adventures he had buying milk, and I enjoyed watching for how many times the phrase "Fortunately, the milk" came up. The action storms along with many, yes, silly and unbelievable scrapes and rescues from danger without pausing for breath. In its 140 pages the story bounces from alien abduction to pirate mayhem, from human sacrifice and volcanoes to Houyhnhnm-style ponies and vampires, culminating in the sheer chaotic collision of aliens, space police, dinosaurs and dwarfs, straight out of a screwball farce. Not to mention an encounter with a memorable time-travelling hot-air-balloonist called Professor Steg.

Chris Riddell's lovely, witty illustrations add even more pizazz to the story and make it feel amost like a graphic novel, which should encourage more reluctant readers to pick up the book.

On an adult level, there we a few things in the story that I particularly appreciated. I identified with the Dad who was oblivious to everything around him when he had his head buried in his newspaper. I liked the children's observations and comments on the story as it unfolded. Mainly, though, I was delighted by the reminder that all the inspiration needed to tell a good story can be found simply by looking around you.

Children aged 8 + should love it!

From ds, 8:
"I really enjoyed the book. The writing was very easy to read so everyone in my family could enjoy it. I would have preferred chapters because you don't know where to stop. I think the idea of having objects at home of everything that happened is good. The characters were very good and it really described how they were feeling. I think the illustrations are good because they give so much of an idea of what things look like and you can make a proper picture of them in your head.

I think people who like adventures should read it. I would read something by the same author."

I haven't finished the book yet myself but the few pages I read really made me laugh. Love the imagination and creativity that has gone into this.

Book received and review posted. We loved this book and thoroughly recommend it for 8-11 year old children. Thanks for the copy.

My ten year old has just flown through this book in twenty minutes, and has given it a big thumbs up. He commented that the illustrations were brilliant and really added to the story. He did say that he loved Professor Steg and that he would definitely be up for reading more about this character. I've had a quick flick through this book myself and it definitely lives up to expectations. Funny, fast paced and more than a little bit crackers. This is why so many kids love Neil Gaiman. Looking forward to passing it on to my seven year old tomorrow. Many thanks for the book, I have no doubt that it will be re read and enjoyed many times

Thank you Mumsnet for our copy. I will try and post a review asap but have had a bereavement in the family.

I'm half way through reading the book to my 6 and 4 year olds. They are really enjoying it and are anticipating what the next mishap might be. We all love Professor Steg. The book looks great - the illustrations are amazing. For me the story is a bit thin ad familiar but the boys love it and it does give me the opportunity to do lots of silly voices - think I'll spend the summer channeling the Wumpires!

This is DS1's review (aged 8):

I love this book - its really funny. And the pictures are great. I'd definitely share this with my friends as they'd like it too. The Wumpires and the dancing gnomes were my favourite bits. Please write more stories like this Mr Gaiman.

This is DS2's review (aged 5): Its really funny but the Wumpires were scary.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this book which I in particular have been looking forward to since hearing about it here on MN.

I read it over 4 nights to my two aged 7 and 4. They both laughed out loud in places, the irreverent humour certainly keeping them spellbound. We all enjoyed the vast scope of of the characters, there seems to be something for everyone, and I liked the fact that it seemed appropriate for both sexes and all ages.

It also prompted all kinds of discussion on the impossibility (or otherwise) of time-travel - which I don't think had ever entered their head-space up to then. They had some problems working out exactly what was happening, especially with the special-shiny-greeny-stone episode, but I don't think it necessarily detracted from the story.

The illustrations were brilliant, though 4yo DS declared the Wumpires 'scary'. He loved the Intergalactic Police though. 7yo DD liked the Wumpires part, and has spent time since swapping her 'w' and 'v's. Our favourite bit was "Three purple dwarfs with flowerpots on their heads appeared from nowhere and began to do a little dance" along with the gorgeous picture. I saw this coming, but DD didn't and her reaction was just brilliant to see.

So thank you for sending us this book. I can see it being a firm bedtime favourite for quite some time to come.

Lovely book ..excellent illustrations just right for my grandaughter thankyou so much I can well recommend it....It is very entertaining I loved it too

Thank you for this wonderfully, bizarre book. It took us four days to get through it. Ds (4) stills enjoys picture books, but has just started over the last few months to enjoy longer chapter books. I would have liked actual marked chapters. However, ds didn't mind and put me right in regards to where we had last read up to. Ds thought the 'Wumpires' were hilarious, probably because I gave them particularly silly voices. Great fun. Finally, the illustrations by Chris Riddell are excellent - remarkably detailed. We also liked his *Ottoline and the Yellow Cat'.

Neil Gaiman, is such lovely book, thrilling my son couldnt put it down untill he finished it, I like the way he writes and the language he uses so easy to. my son says he really likes it because it fun adventures and enjoyed reading it. we will be reading a lot more books from this author.

Thank you so much for sending us this book - we still love it!

I'm still reading it to DS2, so will post his views when we're done. This is DS1's review:

The book is about a dad and his two children. Their mum had gone off to present a paper on lizards and they had run out of milk, so the dad goes to the corner shop to get some. But when he returns from the shop he has a mysterious story. Meet unusual things, including globby green aliens and pirates, in this thrilling tale.

I really like Professor Stegs' way of calling things by adjectives: for instance 'coconut' becomes 'Hard-Hairy-Wet-White-Crunchers'.

I also like that the dad (supposedly) doesn't listen to anything while he is reading the newspaper but when the mum asks him he remembers everything she said.

I would recommend this book to someone who likes fantasy because this book will almost certainly stretch your imagination.

6/5

Thank you so much for sending us the book to review. My 8 year old and I read this together. It really does stretch the imagination but gets a bit confusing for a child at times. However, it was very silly and my daughter really enjoyed the book especially all the illustrations.

This is an absolutely brilliant book. It is written so that adults and children would like it, and that we did.
My husband is terrible at going to get something and it takes him forever. If he came back and told me a story like this I would have to give him a well done for a great imagination. I think sometimes dads do take the long way to get somewhere, but this is a really long.
The drawings are brilliant and thought provoking. The names of the characters are great and the story was wonderful. The children's reactions at the end are great because honestly would you believe him?
I like how the font changes when the children are talking, but the font could be more obviously difference.
We would recommend this to anyone who likes an adventure.
Fantastic! Thank you

We started reading our copy today :) DS (5) was really excited. We have only got to the bit about the pirates.

So far I'm not that taken by it, and we haven't had any laugh out loud moments but he's definitely intrigued to find out more. I've had to hide it so he doesn't read ahead without me! I love the pictures.

Received our copy and read it last night! I was actually quite impressed and really enjoyed it. It is silly and unbelievable but I like the fact that the boy in the story doesn't believe it either so makes it all a bit more realistic that it just just a father telling a story. It really reminded me of my dad when I was younger and he would say he was going out for 20mins and come back 2hrs later with a tall tale!

Our school holidays have just started and I'm at work all day tomorrow so I'm sure the DS's will read it while their dad is looking after them and it will make them laugh. The font is really quite big so makes it easier to read and will make DS1 think there is less reading to do than there is (if that makes sense!)

(Only issue I had was the fact that the mum did everything at the start and yet the dad had a problem getting some milk and he left the children on their own! I read the start thinking that it could be the beginning of a thread on AIBU or Relationships! )

Overall, I would highly recommend it for any children to read themselves or for an adult to read to/with a child. Great for any imagination!

Thank you, MN for the book!

DS is still hooked, he's begging me to read "just one more page" each night. I'm reading it for him rather than letting him read because I'm finding there are a lot of long words in there, which is great in terms of interesting vocabulary but not so easy for DS to read himself. However the book is recommended for 8+ so I expect this is not an issue for older readers.

My 5yr old son was rapt. All of his favourites: pirates, dinosaurs, wumpires......I enjoyed reading it with him, crazy, fast paced and lots of fun. The illustrations support the story really well, and I hope that there will be more books with these characters in to follow.....

Thank you MN for our copy. We ended up with two as I bought my husband (a Neil Gaiman fan) a copy for Fathers Day so I passed a copy on to my father-in-law (also a Neil Gaiman fan). He enjoyed it and found it very funny. Unfortunately, my 6 year old daughter is refusing to read it as she thinks it will be scary even though we have assured her it is not. She won't even let me read it to her! Her father has yet to read it so I read it myself and found it clever and amusing but did not enjoy it quite as much as I expected to. Of course I might have been expecting too much - it is a children's book after all! Having said that there are some great characters - Professor Steg and her way of naming things is particularly amusing. I also liked the way the Dad didn't appear to be listening to Mum but heard everything she said only to miss the last crucial thing she said about the milk. Very realistic! ;-)

I loved the illustrations by Chris Riddell which added a great deal to the story and the format of the book is one that many children would enjoy (here I am thinking of my nephews, who are a bit older than my daughter but not avid readers). I also liked the children's reactions to the Dad's story which was inspired by what he could see around him in the kitchen. Like asuwere I was slightly concerned about the fact the Dad was supposed to have left the kids on their own - how old are they supposed to be? That did not quite work for me but obviously was a necessity for the story.

I agree that Chapters would be preferable because that is also the format that my daughter likes and it makes it easier for bedtime reading when you have a clear place to stop.

DS who is nearly 8 read the book in one evening and thoroughly enjoyed it. I agree with those who think chapters would have been better though.
I read it myself when we were camping and my kindle needed charging. DS started reading it over my shoulder, so I read the second half out loud, funny voices and all providing a lovely morning of family entertainment thank you Mumsnet. I thought it was so good, I will be starting reading it to DD who is 4 as a bedtime story and looking out for more Neil Gaiman books.

Thanks for the book. We applied for it, because I love Neil Gaiman's work, and the book did not disappoint.

I have a 6-year-old DS and he absolutely loved it. The illustrations made it way more accessible and interesting for him. In fact, he was sitting on my lap while we were reading, so we would not miss any pictures. Mainly I read the book, but even he voluntarily read a few pages to me laughing his head off.

He especially loved the silly, unexpected twists and turns. After each chapter we had a long chat about what we just read. (That is what I loved about the book.) As the word "vivisection" is used by the aliens, we had the opportunity to discuss scientific research and drug discovery. (Thank you, Neil.)

Today his Daddy was just a tiny little bit late, and DS assumed he started chatting to somebody in the shop and forgot the time OR got kidnapped by aliens. Both equally likely

We loved this book!

The illustrations are wonderfully rendered, and the print quality is very nice.

I love the basis of the story being an everyday occurrence that turns into a fantastic(al) adventure.

It flips around the parent/child dynamic, children are usually the ones making up wonderful stories about normal, humdrum activities and parents doubting what they are told. It's nice allowing parents to be adventurous and fun. My daughter and I really enjoyed that side of it (as well as the dinosaurs and pirates).

It's silly, funny and imaginative. We loved it.

Thank you for sending us a copy