'Danny the Champion of the World', handlingsresumé

Danny is raised by his father, because his mother died when he was young. They live in an old gypsy caravan at the filling station that his father owns. His father is a mechanic, who teaches Danny everything that he knows. His father has a dark secret, however. One night, Danny wakes up to find that his father is not in bed. He learns that his father is a pheasant poacher. Danny knows this is stealing, but does not mind so much because his father is stealing from the mean rich man, Mr. Hazell.

Another night Danny’s father does not return from a poaching expedition, so Danny drives a car to go find him. Danny finds his father in a pit on Mr. Hazell’s land. His father got caught by the keepers, who keep watch over the pheasants and dug that pit to catch poachers. Danny rescues his father, using a rope from the car, but his father’s leg has been broken by the fall into the pit. They get home and call the doctor, who puts a cast on his father’s leg.

Shortly after that, Danny comes up with a brilliant idea for catching pheasants. Their favorite food is raisins so Danny suggests to his father that they put powder from the sleeping pills given to his father for his leg into the raisins so that the pheasants would fall asleep after they eat the raisins. His father thinks it’s a brilliant plan and takes Danny poaching with him to try it out. They carry it out the day before Mr. Hazell’s big pheasant shooting party, and capture 120 pheasants. Danny’s father calls him the “Champion of the World”. Unfortunately, when they finally get the pheasants back to their caravan, all of the pheasants wake up. Mr. Hazell sees all the pheasants around the caravan, but is unable to do anything about, making this the ultimate victory for Danny and his father.