Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

genre: children's literature

Do you know what Danny knows to be true?  That his dad is the best dad in the world.  He can make anything seem exciting and magical.  They are a real team, Danny and his dad, living on their own in a caravan just outside Danny's dad's service station.

Do you want to know something about Danny's dad?  He has a secret passion and that secret is going to bring about some particularly crazy adventures for them both.  There may be a villianous, crabby man down the road who gets his comeuppance and there will be no lack of congratulations for Danny when he comes up with the best idea his dad has ever heard.

I am going to spoil something for you, since this is something I wished I'd known when I started reading this to my nine year old son.  The dad's secret passion?  It's POACHING.  Stealing other people's animals.  Um, yeah.  I just don't know how I feel about that.  My son loved it, it is really a beautifully told story, I just felt so bad getting excited about Danny and his dad stealing.    I love Dahl's writing and the relationship between Danny and his dad is absolutely fantastic. Even Danny's magnificent idea made my son laugh outloud.   I just was disappointed with the plot - perhaps if I was British I wouldn't have minded so much :)

note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Hm, that is rather odd thing to celebrate.

Kat said...

This book looks promising, I may try to buy one for my son. Thanks for the review

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