The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass. ISBN: 0-440-41832-1. Philip Pullman.1995. Carnegie Medal (England), The Guardian Prize for Fiction (England). Age 12-17. Caucasian upper class, mythical characters.

Synopsis
The Golden compass is the story of Lyra, a brave and intelligent young girl. The story begins at Jordan College where her life is easy and full of mini adventures with neighboring children. Things begin to change for the worse for Lyra and others around her once the Gobblers begin stealing children.
Lyra's real adventure begins when she is introduced to Mrs. Coulter who offers Lyra the promise of North. Lyra is given the alethiometer by the Master of Jordan College before her journey begins. Once Lyra realizes that Mrs. Coulter is part of the Gobblers (Oblation Board) she is on her own - that is until she meets up with the Gyptians.
It is the Gyptians who explain to Lyra many truths about the Gobblers and their mission to rescue the missing children. Lyra also wishes to rescue her Uncle Asrael (who is really her father) and bring him the alethiometer.
On her journey she meets many mythical characters including witches, and ice bears that seem more like humans than bears.
In what seems like the end of her journey Lyra reaches her father and brings him the alethiometer only to find out that he needed a child to complete his mission. Because he did not want to use Lyra, he uses her friend Roger to cross over to another universe.

Topics for Discussion
1. Fantasy Genre
2. The difference between our world and the world in the novel.
3. Good vs. Evil
4. Right vs. Wrong
5. The presence of our souls and how they can be attributed to Daemons in the novel.

Critique
Pullman is a genius when it comes to creating characters. He creates Lyra as the perfect character for this novel because she is adventurous and knows how to lie (Iorek Byrneson refers to her as Lyra Silvertongue) to get herself out of a difficult situation - which there are many of. He also creates interesting characters like Daemons that seem to be a reflection of their humans better self, ice bears who carry on conversation, and witches that feel emotions entirely differently than humans do.
The setting is also interesting. It mirrors our world in that some locations are the same by name like England and the North, yet they are dramatically different.