September is Roald Dahl Month!

September, so the promotional poster furnished by Penguin told me, is Roald Dahl month! And, I've decided to make September Kids' Books Month for my reading list. But, to celebrate the first, I decided to go off my list for one book and pick up something by Roald Dahl.

Danny the Champion of the World was recommended to me by a very good friend of mine. I didn't read much Dahl growing up--we read James and the Giant Peach in the second grade, and I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory just a couple of years ago when the Johnny Depp movie was coming out. So, Danny was a bit of a surprise to me in that there was no magic. Danny and his father live in a gypsy caravan behind their filling station. His father, Danny learns, has a hobby of going poaching for pheasants on nearby Mr. Hazell's land. On the night before Mr. Hazell's big hunting party, Danny hatches a plan so he and his father can bag more pheasants than any poacher ever has.

It was a very cute story, but I must say, I prefer Mr. Dahl's more fantastical tales. And speaking of fantasy, it's time to head back to the list and finish up Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry's Peter Pan trilogy . . .