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Summary: WORLD'S GREATEST DAD!
Review: Dahl has the wonderful gift of creating a warm and satisyfing relationship between young Danny (whose mother died when he was an infant)and his self-sufficient father. They live on a small pocket of land, surrounded by the vast estates owned by a cruel, would-be gentlemen farmer. Danny has friends at school, but he won't share his dad with anyone. Thus they mean the world to each other. The trouble starts when Danny discovers that his father has a secret passion (shared by half the village): Poaching from the forest of the local squire! It's a running battle between the crafty villagers and the vigilant gamekeepers, who think nothing of emptying buckshot into bucolic backsides! Danny becomes initiated into the scared rites of Poaching by Dark, learns various methods used by his grandfather, and even invents one of his own! Their goal is more than to provide tasty dinners for free: they want to ridicule this vicious squire on his annual Pheasant Shoot, by removing most of his birds--just when he plans to impress his real-gentry guests. <BP>Will Danny or his father be caught? Can his father talk their way out of this time? This is a degihtful tale--highly improbable but not impossible. This is an excellent book to share by reading out loud!
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Summary: A children's classic....
Review: Beautifully written from the humouristic, perceptive view of a child, this book is utterly fantastic. It teaches adults to respect their children, and describes adults in a unique, special way, as children would see them. Roald Dahl certainly proved his worth yet again- but this is not entirely surprising- all of his books are memorable classics which absolutely must be read. Written with profound emotion
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Summary: A Great Book!
Review: I really enjoyed "Danny the Champion of the World." Roald Dahl is a wonderful author and this story of a little boy and his father is truly endearing
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Summary: Simply the best children's book ever written.
Review: Memorable story of a young boy, his pheasant-poaching father, and their wonderful, off-beat adventures together. Set in rural England, and peopled with a cast of memorable characters, this novel is Roald Dahl's best (and most "traditional") work of fiction. Themes include: growing up and discovering the imperfections of one's parent, and then realizing that the relationship has been enriched as a result.
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Summary: The only Dahl book I haven't found to be Wonderful
Review: This is the sixth Roald Dahl book that I have read to my girls (who are now ages 7 and 6), and all of the previous books (Charlie and Chocolate Factory, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Witches, and Matilda) were all wonderful. That being said, this book however was not at all wonderful, and unfortunately it is the first Dahl book that I wouldn't recommend. While Roald Dahl generally champions such issues as child neglect, corporal punishment, and preaches against the dangers of too much television, or relying to heavily on calculators (all worthy issues), here instead for some reason or other, he comes out in support of larceny and cheating. "Danny the Champion of the World" is about a poor boy who lives with his father in an old caravan behind the gas station they own. The father is a widower and the father and son love each other very much. They don't have much money, but they don't have any wants either. They seem to live a very peaceful and happy life. Danny's father seems to be a wonderful guy who teaches Danny the trade of being a mechanic in hopes that one day he might be a great inventor. His father is also a great story teller, and one of the bed time stories he tells Danny is about the BFG (The Big Friendly Giant). (I can only assume Dahl used this initial premise to go on to write the full story in his BFG novel that was very good.) At this early stage in the story I thought it was a great book, but then things go wrong. You come to find out that Danny's lovable father has been keeping a secret from Danny. After he gets injured he finally has to tell Danny that he used to love to go up to Mr. Hazel's wood who is the richest man in town, and steal his pheasants, and that he has started to do it again. Not only does he tell Danny that he used to do it, but that he tells him that his mother, his grandfather, and some other very good people who Danny has respected all his life in the town used to steal pheasants as well. Right here is where Dahl loses me. I've come to understand through his other writings that Roald Dahl was a big fan of Charles Dickens and probably liked Dicken's character of the Artful Dodger very much, but his attempt to create a similar character in "Danny the Champion of the World" here fails miserably. The problem was that he goes on to say that it wasn't because they were poor and needed the food that they were going up there and stealing pheasants, (if that was the case I still would consider it wrong, but at least I could understand someone being driven to the point of having to do that, like the Artful Dodger), but rather that they were going up there for the thrill of it, as if they had a gambling problem and needed the high of the game. Rather than preaching that poaching is dangerous and wrong, and that Danny should stay away from it, he corrupts Danny into doing it as well. Danny could be considered the champion of the world if he can just figure out a way of stealing more pheasants than anyone else has ever done before. (I'm sorry but that isn't exactly the goal I would set for my world champion.) You are informed that Mr. Hazel is a very bad man, even though he never did anything illegal to obtain his money, he just isn't very nice. Danny's father makes it out like that since Mr. Hazel isn't very nice then it is all right to steal from him. Isn't that a nice message for the kids. Mr. Hazel isn't a nice man and you do dislike him, but Danny's father even though he is nice, doesn't prove to be any better of a man. There is one scene late in the book where they have this well dressed women hide the stolen pheasants in a baby carriage under her child to smuggle them to each person's house. The child is terrified and almost gets injured by the pheasants as they try to escape. All I kept thinking was that unfortunately some drug dealers may have learned this method of smuggling from reading this book. (I find it inconceivably wrong to use a child in any illegal activity.). I'd like to forget that Dahl ever wrote this book and focus more on his other great works that certainly are worth much more attention. I spent most of this book explaining what was wrong with the story to my girls and kept hoping that in the end there would be some redeeming message, but it never comes.
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Summary: Roald Dahl: Champion of the Books
Review: Danny The Champion of the World is a book written by Roald Dahl and it focused mainly about Danny, his father, pheasants, and havig a great time poaching.
Danny's father has a deep dark secret that only he and a few trusted friends know about.Nevertheless,late one crucial night,Danny woke up at eleven o'clock only to find an empty house.Silence was definately not golden.
He panicked then fled to search the gypsy caravan and the filling station. His father was nowhere to be found.Danny decided to wait up for his dad on the platform.Danny dosed off for two hours, then immediatly woke up to the tap ta tap, tap ta tap of his father's footsteps. They were both suprised and tired, but mostly worried.His father had gone poaching.A fact that would change Danny's life forever.
I would have poached Mr. Victor Hazell's pheasants anyday.On the other hand,the team ruined Hazell's big shooting-party double-handedly.You see, Victor was the slimiest,nastiest person in town.And he looked down on everybody smaller and poorer then him.EVERYBODY.He was their only problem,And he took "care" of him.Mr. Victor Hazell would never be the same.
This book deserves four stars. It was well written and only had minimal boring parts. I would reccomend Dahl to ad a sequel book about how Mr.Hazell vows revenge for getting him humiliated if the eyes of everybody. Roald really should have given the dad a first name.
I would tell anyone who likes a good,fufilling,on-the-edge-but-nt-falling-off sot of book.I would definately read it again.Yet,I do have one question.How deep was the whole?If it was endless this would be a completely different book.
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Summary: Champion of children's literature
Review: With Danny the Champion of the World, it almost doesn't matter what the actual plot content is. The story itself could have been about something completely very dull and it wouldn't have mattered. Dahl's sensitive portrayal of a father-son relationship completely takes over as the book's main theme. Even the title, suggesting a young man who lives in the reclusive English countryside with his father to be labeled as champion of anything is wildly idealistic. It also is able to hold the attention of young readers. Why else is Roald Dahl one of the most well-known children's authors?
Danny and his father (his mother long since deceased) go about their business inside their caravan home running their own gas station only to get caught up in a large pheasant-poaching project. And even though the word "poach" has long had a pajorative definition to me over the years, the characters of this book are so admirable that you find your championing the poachers themselves.
And Dahl's adults are all of the extremes you have come to expect with him: the humanitarian doctor, the rude millionaire, the cool-yet-admirable policeman, the strict former-military officer school teacher, and the ever-gentle parent.
So if there is one thing to take from Danny the Champion of the World it is that a father-son relationship never has an excuse to be less than fantastic. Sure, that's highly utopian. It's also Roald Dahl. That's part of the bargain!
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Summary: Book Review
Review: This book is an awesome adventure story about Danny and his father. I grew up without my real dad in my life, and this book was a positive "scapegoat" for me, during many difficult times in my childhood.
I recommend this book to all youngsters. It will give them a good feeling of what togetherness means, as far as family is concerned.
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