Fortunately, the Milk
- 128
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Fortunately, the Milk” is a gleeful tall tale: a father pops out for milk and returns with an excuse full of aliens, pirates and dinosaurs. In barely 130 pages one absurd idea chases the next, a stegosaurus in a balloon included, and the illustrations win praise from some readers too. It comes alive spoken aloud; some who heard Gaiman narrate it say that is where its charm lies.
Worth knowing A father goes out to buy milk for his children’s breakfast and is gone a very long time; when he returns, he explains that he was abducted by aliens, dropped into the sea among pirates, rescued by a stegosaurus in a hot-air-balloon time machine, offered as a sacrifice by jungle islanders and chased by wumpires, and that through all of it he kept hold of the milk, which is why it is called Fortunately, the Milk. Neil Gaiman wrote it in 2013 for children of about six and up, who get the joke that the father is making it up and the second joke that he might not be; Skottie Young drew the American edition and Chris Riddell the British one, and they are different books to look at. About a hundred pages, most of them pictures, and one of the funniest things he has written.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A little boy and his little sister awake one morning, milkless. Their mother is away on business, their father is buried in the paper, and their Toastios are dry. What are young siblings to do? They impress upon their father that his tea is also without milk and sit back to watch their plan take effect. But something goes amiss, and their father doesn’t return and doesn’t return some more. When he does, finally, he has a story to tell, a story involving aliens; pirates; ponies; wumpires (not the handsome, brooding kind); and a stegosaurus professor who pilots a Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier (which looks suspiciously like a hot-air balloon). There is time travel, treachery, and ample adventure, and, fortunately, the milk he has procured is rescued at every turn.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.1 across 228 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 61% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 8.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 18 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 8.1 | 210 | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is Fortunately, the Milk?
It has 128 pages — shorter than 99% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 7.9 and 8.0, closest to this book.
