This is a beautiful, evocative, children's-book-for-adults. Gaiman has captured the fundamental elements of twentieth-century childhood, and infuses his story with a folkloric style of magic which put me in mind of Alan Garner. Even though my upbringing superficially bears no resemblance to that of the protagonist, I instantly identified with his hopes, fears, love of books, and relationship with his own instincts. A lot of deep, sparkling thinking about the nature of the universe has gone into this book, and I particularly loved Gaiman's commentary on 'reality' through the medium of the hunger birds. I found the ending bittersweet, comforting and challenging in all the best ways. This is definitely one I'll be returning to.