Thanks to all who have responded to the Golden Compass complaint
forwarded to me by a parent. I am grateful to all of you that we can
turn to each other for professional opinions. Since my copy has never
circulated anyway, I have decided to send it to the middle school
knowing if I have an advanced fifth grader who requests it I can have
it sent over. I will keep all the responses for backup ; )
Read the book. This is really a distortion of the story and I can
tellyou, there is no secret plot to get kids to kill God. I promise. I
havenever read that 2003 interview, but the boy and girl do not kill
God. Itis a biblical analogy and in the end the boy and girl represent
Adam andEve and another character represents the snake/devil. This
review seemsa bit paranoid. But, really, you'd have to read the book....
Actually, the boy and the girl don't "kill" God. He is a little old man
whois dying anyway. His angels, who are actually running the show,
aredefeated. His "head angel" is killed but by the girl's biological
motherand father, who sacrifice themselves to save their child and to
"free" theworld from religious oppression. I think that this is going
to becontroversial in elementary schools. I don't think that these
areelementary books. THe concepts are DEEP. The basis of the series
isDante's Inferno. That said, most kids in elementary wouldn't read
book 2 &3. The first book hints at the deeper truths being explored in
the series,but it does stand alone. I would recommend reading the
series if you havethem on your shelf so that you are prepared for
questions/challenges. Good luck. I've read the entire series years ago.
They are dark but I never though they were anti-God. Now I will have to
read them all over again and I am not looking forward to it. Fantasy is
not my favorite genre unless it is nice leprechauns (which are actually
not nice critters at all).
I have removed them from the shelf while I reread them all (ok- no one
throw stones). It was my understanding (back when the books were
originally published)that this series was a retelling of Milton's
Paradise Lost. Was Imisinformed? Hi, I thought I would add my two
cents worth here. I have only read the first one, and found it to have
nothing questionable at all. However, in my master's of library
sicence program, my young adult literature professor predicted this
last spring. She said that with the movie coming out, people would
object to the final book and this book/series would be challenged a
lot. I always knew she was a wise and wonderful professor, but it is
fun to see how she really nailed this one on the head! She did think
it was a fairly direct challenge to traditional Christianity in my
understanding. This article is an in-depth look at Pullman and the
influences on the series(it's a 7-page
article):http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226fa_fact?currentPage=1
.Note that although he drew artistic inspiration from Paradise Lost,
thebooks are not a re-telling of the story (see page 2 of the
abovearticle). I have read the books and think they are more about
thechildren questioning authority and learning to do what is right for
them,not as much about defying religion. This an absolutely fabulous
book, part of a series that is quite compelling. It is a deep read.
It is not really an elementary school book, in my opinion. It is
definitely not evil, or insidious. There is lots to talk about after
reading it. People who are interested should read it, and people who
are not should skip it. If/when more challenges do continue to appear
(and I wouldn't be surprisedif we have one in my district, too), I hope
that we will all rely on theformal processes we have in place that are
intended both to protect ourstudents' intellectual freedom and to ensure
that our collections areeducationally sound and age appropriate. I have
read and loved all threebooks, and if memory serves me, there are
several things in the trilogythat I think will be objectionable to a
certain segment of the population: the character who is the equivalent
of God (named the Authority in thebook) is portrayed as a weak,
ineffective leader; Lyra and Will become, inessence, a new Adam and Eve
whose actions will determine whether originialsin is reintroduced in the
world; and there are witches, just to name afew. But one of the
trilogy's greatest strengths, in my opinion, is itsmoral complexity.
The last book points out that without original sin,there would be no
free will either, with which one could choose to dogood, to live a life
of service to others, etc. That's a thought thathadn't occurred to me
before I read the books. The bottom line, though, is that Pullman's
trilogy was well-reviewed, itis included in the Wilson Middle School/Jr.
High and Senior High SchoolCatalogs (as well as other core collection
sources), and so it isperfectly appropriate to have in a 7-12
collection. Any parent who doesnot want her/his children to read the
books absolutely has the right toshare that expectation with their
children, but they do not have the rightto make that decision for other
people's children. I'll be ready in the event that we have a challenge,
and I trust ourdistrict's reconsideration policy to do what it is
intended to do if thathappens. And I'm thankful that in LM_Net, we all
have a support networkand sounding board when we need advice on such
things.-- I have read the entire trilogy and agree that Pullman is
definitelyanti-religious dogmatism and bureaucracy. However, I don't
believe thetrilogy will indoctrinate anyone into atheism. I think most
of thereligious stuff will fly over the heads of most kids - and those
who docatch it might find it strenghthens their faith to have to think
aboutwhat Pullman is saying. I interpreted the "Yahweh" who is
overthrown asa pseudo-God, not whoever the ultimate Higher Power might
be. Pullmanhas been quoted as saying that, while he does not believe in
any versionof God he's heard of yet, he accepts that this is a pretty
large I hope you have time to read this wonderful book. It is one of
those books that is probably better suited to a middle school
collection, but will be enjoyed by 5th graders ready for a challenge.
(My own daughter began her love affair with this series when she was in
5th grade) Pullman was quite vocal a number of years ago that he
believed C. S. Lewis' Narnia books were "propoganda." The irony of the
controversy here is that when it comes right down to it, he has turned
Milton's Paradise Lost into fantasy. I doubt many of his current critics
would dare try to censor Milton.;-)
Judy Beahan, LMS
Griswold Elementary School
303 Slater Avenue
Griswold, CT 06351
jbeahan@griswold.k12.ct.us
"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that
threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives
forever, for the better." Barack Obama
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