by Neil Gaiman
Children's Fantasy
Amazon / Goodreads
Plot Summary:
"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.
Review:
This is a sweetly, endearing children's book with some fantastic, whimsical illustrations! With such a mundane start - the need to buy milk for breakfast - Neil Gaiman spins a wild, adventurous tall tale of encounters with different peoples and creatures in different times. The story moves so quickly and in very imaginatively unexpected directions, while also tying up all the loose ends nicely. Since there is a time travel aspect to it, I appreciated how neatly some of those temporal twists were explained in the end.The story is framed by the children who are being told this story by their father, and that element of childish skepticism and tangential thinking added humor and fun side-commentary to an already entertaining story. This book was a joy to read for this adult, so I imagine it must be the same for any child. If you are a fan of Neil Gaiman, children's books, or fun stories, definitely give this one a try!
I had my eye on this one when it first came out, and then forgot about it! Do you think Gaiman will do more similiar books?
ReplyDeleteYay, I'm glad you liked this. I thought it was totally adorable! I'm been recommending it to kids at work (the library) a lot.
ReplyDeleteThis looks very fun to me..I want to get a copy!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very fun children's book. Thank you for your review. I love Neil Gaiman so I'm definitely adding this one to my list.
ReplyDeleteI think Neil has written other children's books - like Blueberry Girl and Instructions, but this is the first one I've read by him. I definitely want to check out more! And hopefully he will continue to write them!
ReplyDeleteThat's such a great idea - I sometimes wish I was a librarian, I think it would be so fun to recommend books to kids and to adults! :) I'm sorta the one my IRL bookish friends ask for recommendations and it's the best! :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely! It's such a cute read! And you can't go wrong with Gaiman! :D
ReplyDeleteYay, it is great - I need to pick up some of Gaiman's other children's books!
ReplyDeleteI have heard about this one.. and what makes me want to read it is the illustrations. I love books with illustrations!
ReplyDeleteI'm constantly reminding myself I need to read more of Neil Gaiman's books! I've loved the few I have read, so it should be a no brainer. I just love the very idea of him writing children's books, since his other books can be so whimsical and so dark at the same time, which I can't help but think would work wonderfully for a children's book (maybe not so dark, though, eh?) I will have to check this one out! :) Great review Charlene!
ReplyDeleteThe illustrations are really great - although I noticed the UK version has a different illustrator so I kinda wish I had both versions now! These publishers are evil like that. :D
ReplyDeleteOh this would be a lovely introduction to Gaiman's work! It's a quick read and so fun and whimsical! I hope you get to read something by Gaiman soon! Maybe at least watch the animated film Coraline - it's so good! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is so true - his writing and his sensibilities really lend themselves well to children's books - I don't always like his darker stuff anyways, so I should really read more of his children's books!
ReplyDeleteoh yes yes - I heard the author do a reading of this at a signing some time ago and adored it - I seriously need to read it sometime soon *sigh*
ReplyDeleteWonderful review! When I read this, I didn't really love it, but then I read it aloud and it was just so wonderful! I did voices and it was marvellous and wonderful and such a fun experience.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so fun! I'd like to read more by Neil Gaiman and this seems like it would be an enjoyable book of his to pick up :)
ReplyDeleteAw, hearing Neil read from this must have been amazing! So yes, this is another book to add to your ever increasing TBR pile! :)
ReplyDeleteAw, that's so awesome! There is something about the way Neil's writing sounds that is amazing (as evidenced by his audiobooks) so I am not surprised that reading it aloud helped you enjoy this more!
ReplyDeleteIt is a great read, and you can read it so quickly too - it's great to randomly pick up if you are just in the mood for something different one day!
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