Danny the Champion of the World
By Roald Dahl
Forget about Willy Wonka or the BFG, the best Roald Dahl story, with The Fantastic Mr Fox as a close second, is Danny the Champion of the World. Danny’s story isn't like most of Dahl’s other books. There is no magic or talking creatures during the course of the book. It's a pretty straight forward story about a little boy who lives with his amazing father in a gypsy caravan behind their filling station that they run together. Danny's dad is the kind of father every child should have. The dad tells amazing stories and treats Danny like a little adult. They have truthful conversations and have a great relationship. Everything is perfect until Danny learns that his father (and pretty much everyone else in their sleepy town) poaches pheasants. Danny and his father come up with a fantastic plan to catch more pheasants than anyone else has ever before.
While rereading the book, I am taken back by some of the things that happen in the book. It could be that is was written in a different time, where a father would take his only child into the woods where they both could be shot for trespassing, or maybe it’s just that I'm a mom now. Who knows, but for the most part this book definitely hold up. It's silly and got the whole family laughing in the car. My family went back to Iowa for a few days to celebrate my Grandfather's 90th birthday. When packing, I made sure we brought Danny. We had started the book months ago but my son's obsession with Captain Underpants took over a lot of the reading time with the kiddos, so Danny and his adventures were pushed to the back burner.
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