Book Review: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I just re-read Stardust by Neil Gaiman, aloud for my kids, from the version with illustrations by Charles Vess. The illustrations are perfect and the story fits together just as it should. It was a little tricky to read aloud. I know Gaiman thinks that certain scenes will just fly past kids who aren't ready for them yet, and I know that you have to establish the Fairie parentage of the main character for the story to work, but I'm reading it to a group including a 5-year-old, so, yeah, I'm going to edit out the sex. I remembered the first scene and edited accordingly, but there were others that I didn't remember and had to improvise a bit clumsily. Anyone who's reading it aloud should know it comes with the territory, and don't use the audiobook if you're reading to young children. That said, it's got wonderful characters and a fitting ending and occasional early-20th-century verbiage that just makes it that much more fun. This book is more Princess Bride than the Princess Bride book! On my personal Gaiman ranking list, it's definitely below Neverwhere, American Gods, and the Graveyard Book, but that still makes it very good.