The Golden Compass

In a parallel world where people each have a personal dæmon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form, young Lyra Belacqua is a precocious orphan growing up at Oxford University. The rambunctious girl enjoys climbing on the roof with Roger the kitchen boy, spitting plum stones on passersby, stealing apples from the market and disrupting tutorials by making animal sounds.

But her carefree existence changes when she and her dæmon prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. She’s then quickly swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey dæmon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from witches to an armor-clad polar bear.

Based on the Carnegie Medal-winning novel by Phillip Pullman.