Instructions by Neil Gaiman

Instructions by Neil Gaiman was originally published as a poem in A wolf at the door and other retold fairytales (Simon and Schuster, 2001) but here is published in small picture book format, illustrated by Charles Vess (Bloomsbury, 2010) and it is a wonderful guide to what to do if you find yourself in a fairytale...



Here is a youtube book trailer for it - effective the way the colour saturates the illustrations - and it sounds like Neil Gaiman reading it himself...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRvqO1MjIs

Here for a copy of the poem, http://www.endicott-studio.com/cofhs/cofinstr.html

and here is Neil Gaiman's website with plenty to explore about this prolific and varied author http://www.neilgaiman.com/

Mouse circus http://www.mousecircus.com/ is the official Neil Gaiman website for young readers, and here is the page about Instructions which ends with "Its message of the value of courage, wit, and adventurousness makes it a perfect gift for anyone embarking on a journey, especially graduates of any age."

Reading Instructions instantly transported me to my childhood reading of all the Andrew Lang fairytale retellings of Perrault and Grimm and others in The Olive Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, The Orange Fairy Book - with all the third sons setting off to find their fortune, old crones under trees repaying kindness with directions, impossible tasks and creatures with mysterious powers - wolves, toads, eagles along with witches, giants, goblins and ogres...
Andrew Lang was my great-aunt's godfather, and I have all the books from the early 1900s he inscribed for her at Christmas and birthdays, with their gold edged pages, embossed and decorated front covers, colour plate illustrations with tissue linings.

Here is a link to Neil Gaiman's advice for young writers... read a lot, live a lot, write a lot... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNb5NwxX_g&NR=1