1. ‘Danny, the Champion of the World’ by Roald Dahl
Characters
Danny
Danny is the main character. He lives in a gipsy van with his father. Danny is nine years old for most of the novel. He is a brave and imaginative boy.
Danny’s father (William)
Danny’s father is the hero of the novel. He looks after Danny by himself. He owns a petrol filling station and car garage. He poaches pheasants. He is funny, generous, and ‘sparky’.
Victor Hazell
Victor Hazell is a rich landowner. He owns Hazell’s Wood, where the pheasants are. He is mean.
Doctor Spenser
Doctor Spenser is the local doctor. He is friends with Danny’s father. He also likes poaching. He poaches trout.
Mr Rabbetts
Mr Rabbetts is the head keeper in Hazell’s Wood. His job is to stop poachers from taking the pheasants.
Sergeant Samways
Seargeant Samways is the village policeman. He helps Danny’s father.
Chapter synopses
1-3
Danny lives in a gipsy caravan with his father. His mother died when he was young. His father owns a filling station and garage. Danny has a peaceful and loving childhood.
4-6
Danny’s father likes to poach pheasants. He uses lots of clever tricks to catch them. He poaches pheasants from Victor Hazell, a mean man.
7-10
Danny’s father breaks his legs while out poaching one night. Victor Hazell had set lots of traps to catch poachers. Danny’s father wants to show Victor Hazell a lesson.
11-14
Danny and his father come up with a plan to poach all of the pheasants. They will put some sleeping pill powder inside raisins to make the pheasants fall asleep. They head to Hazell’s Wood.
15-16
Danny and his father have to stay away from the keepers in the wood, who are guarding the pheasants. They pheasants eat the raisins with sleeping pills in them.
17- 18
The plan is a huge success. Danny and his father sneak 120 pheasants out of the wood. 19
The next morning, the vicar’s wife comes to deliver the pheasants to Danny and his father. However, the sleeping pills begin to wear off. Most of the pheasants get away. 20
Victor Hazell arrives at the filling station. He is furious. He wants the police officer to arrest Danny’s father. Instead, the pheasants are chased into the air.
21-22
The doctor manages to save some of the pheasants for Danny and his father, and everyone who helped with the plan. Danny and his father plan more adventures.
Key vocabulary
prose – prose is direct writing. It is straightforward.
engineer – an engineer is someone who designs, builds, or repairs machines.
poaching – poaching is to illegally catch or kill animals, especially by going onto land without the permission of the person who owns it.​
diabolical – diabolical means very bad.
transfixed – if you are transfixed, you can’t move or stop looking at something because you are so interested, surprised, or frightened.
scarce – is something is scarce, it is rare or not available in large amounts.
Biographical information
Roald Dahl is a British author.
He was born in He died in 1990.
He grew up in Llandaff, in Wales.
He joined the RAF when he was 23.
Roald Dahl wrote ‘James and the Giant Peach’, ‘The BFG’, and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’.
His books have sold over 200 million copies.