Fortunately, the Milk... A Hilarious Time-Travelling Adventure by Neil Gaiman!

Lots of children's books are fun. But some Peter Pan did it, with its cast of pirates, lost boys, Indians (even if I do cringe at that phrase), a fairy, a crocodile, mermaids, and a Nana that's a dog called Nana. On the Way Home by Jill Murphy did it, with a girl who may or may not have been attacked by a gorilla, a crocodile (again), a witch, a giant, a UFO, a snake and a ghost. The Boy Who Cried Ninja by Alex Latimer did it, with a boy troubled by a ninja (I approve), an astronaut, a pirate (again), a crocodile (again), and a time travelling monkey.

manage to cram the cast full of the characters that kids love, and elevate it into a cornucopia of children's booky pleasure.

But Neil Gaiman's latest quite possibly tops all of them (yes, maybe even Peter Pan), with his hilarious, bonkers, time-travel-adventure shaggy-dog story. It's the funniest Doctor Who episode you'll never see. When Dad pops round the corner to buy some milk, he's delayed. When he comes back, he claims it was because he ran into: a UFO (again) driven by big snotty aliens who want to redecorate the world; pirates (again); Aztecs; vampi - I mean, wumpires; Splod, the volcano god of people with short, funny names; a paradox in the space-time continuum; intergalactic space police; and a time-travelling dinosaur named Professor Steg, who rides a 'floaty-ball-person-carrier' (it's not called a balloon)! Oh, and some sparkly ponies. And piranhas.

All that would make it worthwhile anyway, but the fact that the British copy of this book is illustrated by my all-time favourite illustrator, the wonderful Chris Riddell, makes it even better. His drawings are so fun and quirky, so detailed, and so full of character. They're a blessing to any book they appear in.

All in all, Fortunately, the Milk... is a perfectly-plotted, great-looking, laugh-out-loud gem of a story. And one that would only take an hour for an adult to read to a child, which surely makes it an absolute must-read book for children of any age over five. And that includes one hundred and five. Seriously, a book like this can nudge a child that doesn't like reading towards being one that does.