Published: 2021
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This book is the winner of numerous awards
This book features in the following series: C2C Series, His Dark Materials .
This book has been graded for interest at 12 years.
This book is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed. This book was published in 2021 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .
Philip Pullman is one of the most highly respected children's authors writing today. He lives in Oxford.
Adventures in literature
Whitbread Children's Book Award: 1971-2005
Costa Children's Book Award
Carnegie Award
This book is in the following series:
His Dark Materials
His Dark Materials is a trilogy by Philip Pullman's which tells of a parallel world where people's souls have physical form in the shape of a daemon. This spellbinding adventure featuring armoured polar bears, magical devices, witches and daemons, is also a re-imagining of Milton's Paradise Lost. The books are as follows:
Book 1 - Northern Lights. The opening instalment, sees Lyra and her shape-changing daemon embark on a dangerous quest. In Oxford, Lyra learns that children are being kidnapped by the mysterious Gobblers. When her friend Roger vanishes she determines to find him, and is given a powerful alethiometer which can reveal the truth in all things. After discovering that the adults around her are not what they seem, Lyra and Pantalaimon join forces with a band of Gyptians. Travelling north they encounter witch-queens and armoured bears, before being captured and taken to Bolvangar where children are being used in terrible and secret experiments...
Book 2 - The Subtle Knife. Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted otherworld Cittgazze, where soul-eating Spectres stalk the streets and wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. But she is not without allies: twelve-year-old Will Parry, fleeing for his life after taking another's, has also stumbled into this strange new realm. On a perilous journey from world to world, Lyra and Will uncover a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and devastating power. And with every step, they move closer to an even greater threat and the shattering truth of their own destiny.
Book 3 - The Amber Spyglass. We're going to the land of the dead and we're going to come back. Will and Lyra, whose fates are bound together by powers beyond their own worlds, have been violently separated. But they must find each other, for ahead of them lies the greatest war that has ever been and a journey to a dark place from which no one has ever returned.
This book has been nominated for the following awards:
Ala Award - Best YA
This book was recognised in the Best YA category of the Ala Award.
Ala Award - Notable Children's Book
This book was recognised in the Notable Children's Book category of the Ala Award.
The Whitbread Award
This book was recognised by the The Whitbread Award, now called 'The Costa Book Awards'. These are a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. They were inaugurated for 1971 publications and known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006 when Costa Coffee, then a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.
Whitbread Book Award
This book was recognised by the Whitbread Book Award.
Whitbread Book Award - Book Of the Year
This book was recognised in the Book of the Year category by the Whitbread Book Award.
Carnegie Medal
This book was recognised by the Carnegie Award. The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.
The Audies
This book was recognised by the The Audies.
BBC Book Awards - Big Read Top 100
This book was recognised in the Big Read Top 100 category by the Bbc Book Awards.
West Australian Young Reader's Book Award - Older Readers
This book was recognised in the Older Readers category by the West Australian Young Reader's Book Award.
BBC Book Awards - Big Read Top 20
This book was recognised in the Big Read Top 20 category by the Bbc Book Awards.
This book features the following character:
Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua is the daughter of Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter. She was raised as an orphan in the sanctuary of Oxford’s Jordan College. Tough, likeable heroine Lyra, brave, independent and intensely loyal to her friends, is at the centre of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy in which she is drawn into a war between several parallel universes. The significance of her own role gradually becomes apparent and questions of destiny and free will come into play.