Danny the Champion of the World

Danny's mother died when he was a baby, and his father has raised him alone ever since in an old painted caravan beside the little filling station and workshop he runs. Danny learns to fix engines, fly kites and build fire balloons, and every night his father tells him stories, including tales of the Big Friendly Giant. Life is simple and very happy. Their neighbor, however, is Victor Hazell, a wealthy brewer who owns the woods around them and treats everyone with contempt.

One night, when Danny is nine, he wakes to find his father gone. He learns that his father, like his grandfather before him, has a secret passion for poaching pheasants from Hazell's woods, and that he knows dozens of ingenious methods. When his father gets into trouble in the woods, Danny drives the family's little car alone at night to rescue him, and soon father and son, with help from friendly villagers including the local doctor, plan a huge scheme to spoil Hazell's grand shooting party, using raisins and a clever sleeping powder. The plan goes beautifully, and then hilariously wrong.

Gentle, funny and full of love. About 202 pages in the Puffin paperback with Quentin Blake's illustrations.