Right away I could tell this was written by Neil Gaiman. I mean, I think that happens with most Gaiman books, but this one jumped out at me. I think after listening to Neil read his own books I tend to have his voice in my head when I read his work. We have a lovely tale about a father who goes out to pick up some milk and the fantastic journey he takes to get home. I could see this being a story that Neil actually told his kids, and then just wrote it down. (This is the second Gaiman story I’ve read where the father is reading the paper and not noticing things around him, the other one being The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. I wonder if his father was often engrossed in his paper, or he’s just using a common trope.)
The father goes out and acquires the milk. But then he gets abducted by aliens. And then he opens a portal in space-time and ends up captured by pirates. But he gets rescued by a dinosaur in a hot-air balloon who happens to have a time machine. And then they almost get sacrificed, but cause a volcano to erupt instead. Through a bunch of other hijinks, he eventually makes it home with the milk. Because the milk is the important thing. The milk is the focus and the stability in the story.
The story is fun and the illustrations are fantastical. Children will like seeing their favorite elements and adults will like the creativity that Gaiman provides. And who knows? Maybe it will provide some inspiration next time someone needs to go out for milk!