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His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book 1)

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “MARVELOUS.”—The New Yorker • An Entertainment Weekly All-Time Greatest Novel • A Newsweek Top 100 Book of All Time • Winner of the Carnegie Medal • The Inspiration for the HBO Original Series His Dark Materials

DON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO LYRA’S STORY: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!

Discover the modern fantasy classic that kicked off the epic trilogies His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust—a world where humans have animal familiars and parallel universes are within reach.

“Pullman is quite possibly a genius.”—Newsweek

A war is brewing in Lyra’s world between those who would keep people in ignorance and those willing to fight for freedom. Lyra is thrust into the middle of the conflict when her uncle Asriel comes to Oxford, fomenting rebellion, and when her best friend, Roger, suddenly disappears.

Lyra learns that Roger was kidnapped by a shadowy organization that is rumored to experiment on children. To find him, she will travel to the cold, far North, where armored bears and witch clans rule—and where Asriel is attempting to build a bridge to a parallel world.

What Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other—and that her actions will have consequences not just in her world, but in all the worlds beyond.

Look for the modern fantasy classics of HIS DARK MATERIALS:
The Golden Compass • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass

And Lyra’s adventures continue in THE BOOK OF DUST:
La Belle Sauvage • The Secret Commonwealth • The Rose Field
  • WINNER
    AudioFile Earphones Award
  • WINNER | 2012
    TimeOutNewYorkKids.com 50 Best Books for Kids
  • WINNER | 2000
    Audie Awards
  • WINNER | 1999
    Texas Lonestar Reading List
  • WINNER | 1997
    ALA Best Books for Young Adults
  • WINNER | 1997
    ALA Notable Children's Book
  • WINNER | 1997
    Maine Student Book Award
  • WINNER | 1996
    Carnegie Medal
  • SELECTION | 2000
    ALSC Notable Children's Recordings
  • SELECTION | 2000
    YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
  • SELECTION | 1999
    Capitol Choices Noteworthy Audiobook
  • SELECTION | 1999
    Publishers' Weekly Listen Up! Award
  • FINALIST | 1998
    Massachusetts Children's Book Award
  • NOMINEE | 1997
    American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Award - Children
  • SELECTION | 1997
    ALA Notable Children's Book
© Bryan Appleyard
Philip Pullman is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. He is also the author of another trilogy set in the same world, The Book of Dust (La Belle Sauvage, The Secret Commonwealth, and The Rose Field) as well as numerous other much-loved novels, a collection of fairy tales, and a volume of essays and speeches on writing. He has won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread (now Costa) Award, Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Pullman was knighted for services to literature in the New Years Honours 2019. He lives in Oxford, England. View titles by Philip Pullman

Watch the trailer for His Dark Materials

Educator Guide for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book 1)

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

About

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “MARVELOUS.”—The New Yorker • An Entertainment Weekly All-Time Greatest Novel • A Newsweek Top 100 Book of All Time • Winner of the Carnegie Medal • The Inspiration for the HBO Original Series His Dark Materials

DON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO LYRA’S STORY: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!

Discover the modern fantasy classic that kicked off the epic trilogies His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust—a world where humans have animal familiars and parallel universes are within reach.

“Pullman is quite possibly a genius.”—Newsweek

A war is brewing in Lyra’s world between those who would keep people in ignorance and those willing to fight for freedom. Lyra is thrust into the middle of the conflict when her uncle Asriel comes to Oxford, fomenting rebellion, and when her best friend, Roger, suddenly disappears.

Lyra learns that Roger was kidnapped by a shadowy organization that is rumored to experiment on children. To find him, she will travel to the cold, far North, where armored bears and witch clans rule—and where Asriel is attempting to build a bridge to a parallel world.

What Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other—and that her actions will have consequences not just in her world, but in all the worlds beyond.

Look for the modern fantasy classics of HIS DARK MATERIALS:
The Golden Compass • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass

And Lyra’s adventures continue in THE BOOK OF DUST:
La Belle Sauvage • The Secret Commonwealth • The Rose Field

Awards

  • WINNER
    AudioFile Earphones Award
  • WINNER | 2012
    TimeOutNewYorkKids.com 50 Best Books for Kids
  • WINNER | 2000
    Audie Awards
  • WINNER | 1999
    Texas Lonestar Reading List
  • WINNER | 1997
    ALA Best Books for Young Adults
  • WINNER | 1997
    ALA Notable Children's Book
  • WINNER | 1997
    Maine Student Book Award
  • WINNER | 1996
    Carnegie Medal
  • SELECTION | 2000
    ALSC Notable Children's Recordings
  • SELECTION | 2000
    YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
  • SELECTION | 1999
    Capitol Choices Noteworthy Audiobook
  • SELECTION | 1999
    Publishers' Weekly Listen Up! Award
  • FINALIST | 1998
    Massachusetts Children's Book Award
  • NOMINEE | 1997
    American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Award - Children
  • SELECTION | 1997
    ALA Notable Children's Book

Author

© Bryan Appleyard
Philip Pullman is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. He is also the author of another trilogy set in the same world, The Book of Dust (La Belle Sauvage, The Secret Commonwealth, and The Rose Field) as well as numerous other much-loved novels, a collection of fairy tales, and a volume of essays and speeches on writing. He has won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread (now Costa) Award, Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Pullman was knighted for services to literature in the New Years Honours 2019. He lives in Oxford, England. View titles by Philip Pullman

Media

Watch the trailer for His Dark Materials

Guides

Educator Guide for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book 1)

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)