52 Books in 52 Weeks, it's called. The challenge is simple: read a book every week for a year.
04. Danny, the champion of the world.
One of my favorite books growing up; one of my favorite books from growing up now that I’m grown. Danny’s affection for his father transcends the revelation that his father engages in an addictive and illegal pastime. It subsumes it, redeems it. Danny notices his father’s every attention (he mentions each time his father holds his hand); he lionizes his father’s every habit. I think children can powerfully empathize with Danny; with the sense that there are grown-up currents that their fathers swim in, which they don’t understand but which they trust their fathers to protect them in/from. I think children can empathize with this all-covering love which makes even poaching noble. The truth is that Danny’s low estate means nothing to him because he only has eyes for his father, and I know this is true in real life, for real children. I love this book.
