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Fortunately, The Milk | October 9, 2013

by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Skottie Young (HarperCollins Children's Books, Sept. 2013)

Neil Gaiman’s latest is based upon a simple premise that allows him to throw just about every imagining onto the page. A father is tasked with buying a bottle of milk for his children’s breakfast, but when the trip takes longer than expected, the children naturally have questions when he returns. Without skipping a beat, the dad launches into a frenetic tale that begins with alien abduction but very quickly involves a time-traveling Stegosaurus, pirates, a volcano god, and piranhas. Well, maybe not piranhas, the father concedes when his son points out that piranha are fresh water fish. And throughout it all, the milk comes along for the ride and even plays a crucial part. The interplay between the children and their dad allows the story to remain ductile as the dad responds to his children’s skepticism, incorporates their suggestions, and weasels his way out of narrative dead ends. In many ways, the various twists and increasingly absurd characters are only a thin foreground to this backstage interplay between father and children. Despite the title, this is a story more about storytelling than milk.

With all due reverence to Gaiman, the true star of this book is artist Skottie Young, who is better known for his work in comics, including the recent adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There’s a raw, chaotic energy to Young’s pen lines with smoke and hair and fabric and wires spiraling out off of every delightfully over-the-top character. Young’s illustrations deftly keep pace with this sprint of a story and flesh out a lot of the world that the text simply doesn’t have time to dwell on. Here’s hoping this isn’t Young’s last foray into children’s books.

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