Book Club: The Golden Compass
A few of you have raved about The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials, Book 1, by Philip Pullman. So we added it to the Book Club list and we’re ready to start the discussion. Feel free to share your opinion on the book, answer my questions, and even ask your own!
But first, a note: this book did include intense battle scenes and mature concepts so younger readers might want to wait a few years before tackling this one.
The Golden Compass Synopsis
Lyra Belacqua is a 12-year-old girl awaiting the arrival of her uncle and guardian, Lord Asriel, at Jordan College. She spies on him and learns of a magic material called “Dust”. She then meets Mrs Coulter, an adventurous woman, and agrees to go to live with her. Before her departure, the Master of the College secretly entrusts Lyra with an alethiometer: a “truth teller” which resembles a golden pocket-watch that can answer any question asked by a skilled user. Lyra’s journey takes her to the cold far North where she discovers the shocking truth.
I loved how this book let my imagination run wild! This strange world is somewhat familiar yet so different than the one we know. I found myself rooting so intensely for Lyra, that I couldn’t put the book down. I also found myself drawn to Lyra’s personality. She’s tough but she values friendship and loyalty. Talk about leaving readers on edge, as the ending is a cliff-hanger, driving us to read the next in the series, The Subtle Knife.
I want to hear what you thought about this book! Here are my questions for you:
1. Did you like Lyra? If so, did you like her instantly, or were you more fond of her as time passed?
2. Why do you think the author stressed that Lyra is not an imaginative child?
3. Is “Dust” good or bad?
4. Is Lord Asriel a hero or a villain?
5. What kind of animal would your dæmon be and why?
Looking forward to your feedback.
-Kim, owlblog@owlkids.com
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Dear Kim,
Thunder Bay has had a flood and more then 1, 200 homes were damaged or has had problems. But thats not all, more then half of those homes were dameged so much the people had to move out. St Peter’s Church has been a great help as well as the Red Cross. Now everyone has nothing exept moldy belongings, I go to Vance Chapman School and they’ve adopted a school to help out. Our schools raising money, donating, and giving help.
Yours truly,
Maaja
Hi Maaja. Is there a website you can direct me to? Where do people donate?
Maaja, I think it’s great you’re trying to do as much as you can to help your community. How are things going now? If you want to submit some sort of story about your experience helping out, please do.
Haven’t read this yet but thanks to your review, I just might!
Thanks for reading my request, Kim! I read it about a year ago, but I’ll see what I can remember…
1. I think I started to like Lyra better as the book progressed, because she was kind of annoying at the beginning and it didn’t really seem like there was anything really special about her.
2. I don’t really remember this part, but it was probably to hint that her creativity wasn’t really going to help her at any point in the story.
3. I don’t think it’s either good or bad, it’s just something that exists in the story and is responsible for a lot of the stuff that happens; it’s what people do with it that determines this answer.
4. Neither. He’s working for the “good” side in this story, but he’s also really power-hungry and is willing to sacrifice other people (not giving anything away there…) to get what he wants.
5. I’d want something that’s not too big so that it would be awkward, but not really small so it would get trampled either. Maybe an otter or a lemur or a possum maybe?
Great responses, Laura! As far as #5, I think I would like mine to be a seal.
Thank you sooo much for trying to do something for Thunder Bay community!
Our water sewage plants has 2 out of its 5 pumps working now.
It’s supposed to take 4-5 weeks to get all the pumps working again.
But the basements are still flooded.
Here’s the website:
http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=43470&tid=001
Things are going great! Just today our CEO of the water sewage plant announced that Thunder Bay can now use water regularly! We could now take showers more often, flush toilets like usual, wash hands instead of use hand sanitizer, do laundry, wash dishes, and much more. My school is proud to be Thunder Bay citizens by donating everyday things that people now need. All our efforts will be worth it. I hope you donate; it’ll be worth it too.
Maaja S.
Age 11