Fortunately, the Milk

František Majer
 Neil Gaiman
• Neil Richard Gaiman – 10 November 1960
• English author of short fiction, novels, comic books …
• known for his sci-fi and fantasy books
• other books: Coraline, The Graveyard Book, American Gods, The
Sandman, Stardust
 Characters
• The kids – inquisitive, excited to hear the story, questioning the story
• Dad – makes up the story, creative, knows what his children like
• Professor Steg – intelligent, makes up funny names for things, travels
through time, writes books
• other (not as important) characters include: aliens, vampires, tribe
men, dinosaur police, pirates
 Plot
• Children with their father at home alone (mom leaves for a week)
• Dad forgets to buy milk and the children cannot have cereal with milk
and he cant have his tea
• Dad goes to the shops to buy milk
• The children are waiting for a really long time for him
• When dad returns, he tells a story about his journey for the milk
 Plot
• Dad gets trapped on an alien ship
• Falls out and lands on a pirate ship
• Saved by prof. Steg in her balloon – time-travelling ability
• Encounter with the tribe men
• Encounter with the vampires
• Caught by the aliens one more time
 The End of the Story
• The end of the world or just three dancing dwarves?
• The two milks accidentally touching
• Aliens are caught by the dinosaur police
• prof. Steg writes books about her journey and becomes famous
• Dad returns home with the milk
• The children are skeptical and see all the things mentioned in the
story right there in the kitchen
“Actually,“ he said, “I call them special-shiny-clear-stones, special-shiny-bluey-
stones, and, um-“
“Special-shiny-red-stones?“ I suggested
“Indeed,“ he said. “I called them that when I was inventing my Really-Good-Moves-
Around-in-Time-Machine, one hundred and fifty million years ago.“
“Well,“ I told him, “it was very lucky for me that you turned up when you did and
rescued me. I am slightly lost in space and time right now and need to get home in
order to make sure my children have milk for their breakfast.“ I showed it to him.
“I expect that one hundred and fifty million years ago you called it wet-white-
drinky-stuff.“
“Dinosaurs are reptiles, sir,“ said Professor Steg. “We do not go in for milk.“
1. Who is talking?
2. Where in the story are we?
3. How do you think this conversation continues?
 Answers
1. Who is talking? – dad and Professor Steg
2. Where in the story are we? – Professor Steg saved dad from the
pirates and they are in the hot-air-balloon
3. How do you think this conversation continues? – dad discovers that
dinosaurs eat cereal with orange juice and Professor Steg is
disturbed that mammals eat cereal with milk
 Sources
• Fortunately, the Milk – Neil Gaiman from Bloomsbury – the book