The Golden Compass

Title: The Golden Compass
Author: Philip Pullman
ISBN: 0345413350

Other Books in Series: The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass

Plot Summary: Lyra Belacqua, a young orphan, lives at the Oxford University of an alternate universe, one in which all people have Daemons, animal familiars with supernatural powers who are extensions of peoples' souls. While exploring Jordan College, the fictional Oxford college where she lives and her uncle works, Lyra overhears information she was not meant to know. Along with her Daemon, Pantalaimon, she decides to explore based on what she has heard, despite the danger. Her quest will ultimately lead her to explore an assassination attempt against her uncle, a mysterious entity known as Dust, intriguing and sometimes dangerous people, and a magical device that, once she learns how to use it, will lead her to adventures she never before dreamed possible.


Critical Evaluation: Lyra's world is one in which the supernatural is considered perfectly natural. Polar bears talk, form armies, and build magnificent fortresses at the North Pole. The fact that people have extensions of their souls in animal form is not seen as bizarre; rather, it is the idea of experimental procedures to separate children from their still-developing Daemons that is presented as unnatural and dangerous. The internal logic of Pullman's world, fantastical as it is compared to our own, is uniformly consistent. His major accomplishment in this book is to demonstrate that conflict in this world lies not in its organically fantastical qualities, but in the efforts of antagonistic forces to divorce the world's inhabitants from their magical natures. The writing style is dense and stylized, and could prove complicated for more reluctant readers. However, those who make the effort to enter Pullman's world will find it rich and satisfying - and those hungry for a female narrative voice will appreciate Lyra's pluck and determination, even if she is a girl and not yet a woman.
Reader's Annotation: In a world where bears talk, dust has magical properties, and compasses tell more than which way is North, something is amiss. Lyra, a young orphan living at Oxford's Jordan College, comes across a plot that will lead her to places and things she never imagined possible.


About the Author: Philip Pullman was born in 1946 in Norwich, Norfolk, England. His family's migrations brought him to many different places as a child, including Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Australia, and Wales. He received a degree in English from Exeter College at Oxford University, after which he met and married Judith Speller and began to teach and write creatively. He initially wrote school plays for his students, but soon progressed to fantasy-based fiction for both adults and children. He continued to write children's fiction and teach part-time at the university level before choosing writing as a full-time career in 1996, when he began to write and publish the His Dark Materials trilogy. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2004 for his literary accomplishments, as well as an honorary doctorate from Oxford in 2009.

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy

Curriculum Ties: World Religions, Philosophy

Booktalking Ideas:

Hook: People in Lyra's world have Daemons, but their forms do not become permanent until the human host reaches maturity.
Approach: Plot and character-based.
Ideas for Booktalk: What does a Daemon's form say about the soul of the human it accompanies? Discuss intercision: what it is, why Mrs. Coulter and her associates are trying it. A child's Daemon is mutable in form - what happens when this child and its Daemon are separated? Pullman has said that female humans have male Daemons and vice versa; if the human is attracted to members of the same sex, the Daemon is the same gender. Discuss what this means in terms of gender relations, human/Daemon relations, what the implications are for a human to be separated from such an entity.

Hook: Mrs. Coulter's pleasant appearance is deceiving, and her motives and allegiances are not clear.
Approach: Character-based.
Ideas for Booktalk: Mrs. Coulter comes off as beautiful, charming, and friendly at first, but the reader and Lyra soon realizes that she is in league with the Oblation Board and the Gobblers, and has been experimenting with intercision on children. What are her motivations for doing this, and what does she hope to accomplish? What does she want with the Alethiometer? Discuss what her Daemon's form says about her as a person. Lord Asriel offers to take her with him at the end of the book, but she declines. Why does he offer, and why does she turn him down?

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 7-12


Challenge Issues: Religious viewpoint, violence, witchcraft.
Philip Pullman is a self-avowed atheist, and has spoken out on his own and via various book characters against organized religion. Although no religion is specifically mentioned in The Golden Compass, one could make the case that Lyra inhabits a world in which the magical and scientific are valued above the religious, which could indicate support of witchcraft in addition to condemnation of religion. That said, Lyra's main battle in this part of the trilogy is against authoritarian forces which attempt to separate people from part of their souls. Although the concept of a soul is part of most religions, it may also be viewed in a purely spiritual sense. Given Pullman's support of civil liberties, and the presence in his books of spiritual rather than religious elements, it may be said that although he is not in favor of religion as it currently exists, he is not averse to the concept of faith. As for the question of violence in the book, it is true that Lyra witnesses a number of disturbing and sometimes bloody scenes; however, assuming the individual reader is mature enough to handle such situations, they are not overly inappropriate for their intended age level.

Why I Chose This Book: Although this book is told from the perspective of a child, albeit an intelligent and resourceful one, it still manages an impressive level of sophistication in terms of world-building, character development, especially in the case of the protagonist. Although the book's ending leaves the door open for the sequels in the trilogy, the story it tells can be seen as a complete one in its own right. The dialogue and vocabulary, although stylized to reflect the book's alternate universe, has the ring of authenticity, and is as satisfying to an older reader as to a younger one. Other fantasy novels, such as the Harry Potter series, may provide less of a challenge to reluctant readers and are more instantly accessible, but in my opinion, the more complex world this book presents is well worth the effort.