this shit was SO GOOD like i love the ACAB undertones of this and also the description of the gas station... the little GAS STOVE.... the raisins.... every detail is printed into my mind. love this shit

This is a wonderful story. Some people may try to describe this masterpiece as a book about poaching pheasants in England, but that is a mistake. This is the story of a boy and his father and the relationship they have. Young Danny is the son and his father is his hero. Danny, needless to say, is the champion of the world. He is smart and fun and the two of them have great adventure.

i used to like it more but i did a book review for it in primary school and now i like it less.

En principio es una novela infantil más, pero la recuerdo con muchísimo cariño. Danny vive con su padre y se dedican a la delincuencia; partiendo de esta premisa es difícil adivinar que el libro es una oda al amor paterno y a los placeres del descubrimiento de la infancia, pero por ahí nos quiso llevar Mr. Dahl. La aventura final de los faisanes es maravillosa. Es un libro que recuerdo siempre con una sonrisa y que no quiero volver a tocar, por si acaso.

The best thing I can say about this book is that Dahl's writing, at least on a technical level, is excellent. He writes in a traditional, yet lively manner that I don't see that often in contemporary fiction (more than one reason to plunder the past) and it's kind of lovely.

What ISN'T so lovely is the story itself, which at best is awkwardly bizarre and at worst offensive. The story isn't so much about Danny, champion of the world (cute title but nonsensical within the context of the story) but his father who extols the virtues of poaching & stealing to his son. The story is narrated from Danny's point of view, yet Danny is nothing but goggle-eyed at his lecherous father who is supposed to be, I don't know, charming? The poaching plot, which takes up most of the book, is not compelling or complex but makes me question why in the world Dahl thought it would make for an irresistible story.

But what irredeemably disgusted me was Danny's contribution to the pheasant-stealing plot, and that is essentially the boy coming up with roofies (I mean raisins) that dope up the "stupid" birds so much that they can't do anything but sleep and get taken advantage of. As much as I go gaga for rape metaphors in children's literature, it strikes a fatal blow to the already stupid poaching plot. Dahl's taste level is completely off in this book, and although the book is very easy to read, it's also turgid. Danny might be the champion of the world, but this insipid book still sucks.

This story was just not for me. I thought this book was about something different when I've read the back cover. Unfortunately it turns out that the characters were more interested in talking about 'turkeys' - as objects - and what beautiful 'meat dishes' they want to eat.
I did not care for that as I don't eat meat and the topic and conversations in this book made me cringe at most times. The only thing I liked was that Danny and his father live in a Caravan.

Also in this story is a lot of "this is mine", "that's his land" - another topic that I don't like and why is that in a children's story? Brainwashing already at a young age? Hmm... meat is good, hey? Perhaps people were really more narrow-minded back in the days than nowadays.

Longer juvenile novels are what Roald Dahl does best, in my experience, and Danny, the Champion of the World (one hundred ninety-six pages in the edition I read) is substantially longer than many of Dahl's other novels. Danny was orphaned at four months old, when his mother suddenly died. His father, William, is an intelligent, innovative, good-humored man who converted his bereavement into even more intense love for his son. Many times Danny recalls his father surpassing his expectations with grand surprises, surely the mark of a father unlike any other. Our story begins, however, on the night William doesn't come home to the small gypsy vehicle they live in, parked by the filling station he owns and operates. Nine years old, Danny can't remember his father ever not returning home at night. What could be keeping him?

"Most of the really exciting things we do in our lives scare us to death. They wouldn't be exciting if they didn't."

—Danny, the Champion of the World, P. 52

William arrives soon enough, with a secret to confess. He is an expert at poaching for pheasants, which he learned from his own father and did on a nightly basis with Danny's mother before their son was born. William discovered all manner of tricks for trapping pheasants, but gave up the sport when Danny's mother passed away. The infant needed his father constantly, and couldn't be left alone while William dabbled in illegal activity. William is finally returning to the game he loves, though he doesn't wish to include Danny yet. The woodlands he poaches in belong to wealthy, cantankerous Victor Hazell, owner of a beer brewery as well as acre upon acre of land populated by fat pheasants. Mr. Hazell raises the birds for his annual community pheasant hunt, which puts him in good stead with the locals despite his unfriendly personality. To protect his birds, keepers are employed to patrol the grounds with firearms, making poaching on Mr. Hazell's property a dangerous game.

Danny would like to join his father's poaching expeditions but is content to stay home, until one night William doesn't come back. Only Danny knows what his father is up to, so only he can save him. Mr. Hazell is responsible for what has befallen William, it turns out, and it seems the rich man will never pay for his sins. He'll drive around in his fancy automobile for the rest of his life, thinking himself superior to everyone. Only a brilliant, devious plot could exact retribution on Mr. Hazell by messing up his annual pheasant hunt, but William is out of ideas. Might Danny brainstorm the perfect revenge and cement his own legacy as the latest in a long line of champion poachers?

Danny, the Champion of the World isn't Roald Dahl's best, but there are things to like. Danny has a closer relationship with his father than most sons, built on his admiration for the man and their mutual affection. His father calls him "My love", a term of rich endearment rarely shared between parents and children. The morality of William's overall worldview can be questioned, but not his allegiance to his child. I prefer James and the Giant Peach or The Witches, but this book is entertaining, and I'd rate it one and a half stars. Nothing else by Roald Dahl is quite like it.

The movie with Jeremy Irons, his wife, Sinead Cusack, his son and his father-in-law is just as good as the book! Great for all ages.

تمام کتاب خون بودن امروزمو مدیون کتاب های این چنینی یچگی هایم هستم که سخت دوستشون داشتم
و مدیون دختر خاله ی عزیزم که این کتاب هم هدیه اون بود :)

This book is so sweet!

I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid (the squirrels! the Oompa-Loompas!). But this is the Roald Dahl book that has stayed with me, and a lot of other people I've met along the way. Like any really outstanding kids' book it has a lot to say to, and about, adults.

Danny has a warm and loving relationship with his Dad: it's a touchstone that gives him a measure for sane and healthy adult behaviour. It enables him to see the reverse, too: when an adult is nothing but a tall child, using a position of power and control to get off on exerting that power. He sees clearly, cannot be gaslit: he has the insight to know there are not two standards of ethical behaviour between children and adults, or indeed between any two groups of people. If an adult lies to his face, then calls him a simply awful little liar, he is not confused and not convinced.

Projection, much? There's a lot of it about, of course: the corrupt impugn the honesty of others, the self-important want to take others 'down a peg or two'. It's a misdirection that works with the sheep, the weak and the stupid, often enough. But you can't piss on Danny's shoes and tell him it's raining: he knows what ethical behaviour in good faith looks like, and what it don't, bud.

Love gives him wisdom, and strength: but of course even the kindest most loving adult is a well of secrets, and Danny finds out his Dad is a more complex character than he dreamed... Isn't everyone? That's part of growing up, too.

Absolutely darling illustrations in the old Puffin edition by Jill Bennet, rather less enchanted by Quentin Blake.

Confession, I didn’t finish this book. I read 94 pages to my daughter, and we both decided to quit. The basic premise of the book is that there’s a “bad guy” who wants to kill a bunch of pheasants, and there’s a “good guy” who wants to kill the same bunch of pheasants. It was a very violent premise dealt with in a trite and casual manner. The pheasants were treated like mere pawns in the battle between the two men, not as living beings with interests of their own. I’ve enjoyed many of Roald Dahl’s other books, but this one was very disappointing. #teampheasant