"Danny the Champion of the World"

     There are so many ways to look at children's media, media made for children and media made by children. You can look at children's media and how it relates to spirituality. You can examine the media, studying how it teaches and represents spiritual principles. You can also examine children's media under the light of adventure and how that relates to a child's everyday life. However, the category that is arguable the most important is that of the family.

     The reason the family is probably the most important section is because, ideally, all of the other sections would all occur in the family unit. The family should be the main source of media for children. Parents should be deciding what things their children should be consuming, not somebody else's parents or random people. Also, the family should be where children learn about diversity, imagination and experimentation.

     Also, it is from the family that a child derives his identity. He is someone's son or daughter, someone's sister or brother. The family is one of the most important things in a child's life. And this is clearly seen in Danny, the Champion of the World.

     Danny, the Champion of the World is a book written by Roald Dahl. It is about a young boy, named Danny, who lives with his father in a gypsy trailer. Danny and his father are best friends. His father is a mechanic and teaches Danny everything he knows. Then, one day, Danny finds out that his dad poaches pheasants. And this leads them on a whole new adventure.

     The whole book is essentially about the relationship Danny has with his father. There are other characters in the story, but they are all subsidiary; the focus is always on Danny and his father. They are always present in each other's lives. They are each other's world. Danny does not like inviting friends over to his home because he likes spending time with his dad. I am not saying that children should not have friends, but that their father should should have a strong relationship with their children. After his died, Danny's father vows to give up poaching in order to take care of Danny, even though it was his favorite thing in the world.

     Even the moral of the story is familial. Towards the end of the story, after a huge fiasco with one hundred and twenty pheasants, a local doctors says, referring to the birds: "It never pays to eat more than your fair share." Just kidding. The actual moral is for parents not to be stodgy, but rather sparky, because that is what every child deserves.

     Because, supposedly, parents are the most constant thing in a child's life, it is important for them to be "sparky" because that will always stay with them. Danny's father taught him how to fix a car and to hunt pheasants. And looking back, I do not recall a time when my father similarly taught me things. I am not saying I had a bad father or anything, he was great. We just never spent the time together like Danny and his father did. And it makes me want to make sure I am sparky when I have kids.

     Family is one of the most important things in a child's life. It is always there, it is a constant. And ideally, the family is the gateway. The gateway through which media for the child is chose. And the gateway through which the child learns about diversity, inquiry and morality.