Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	The Golden Compass
	Author:	Pullman, Philip
	Date Published:	1996
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	5 - 8
	Booktalker:	Susan Bartel

Booktalk:
My name is Lyra. This is Pantalaemon. You might think that’s just a cat sitting on my shoulder. You’d be right. Sort of. Pan changes shape depending on how I’m feeling. Another time he could be a butterfly or a hawk. By looking at Pan, you’re seeing a little of my soul. He truly is my soulmate and we are never separated. I live in England, but not the England with which you might be familiar. Parallel to your world are other worlds and I live on one of those planes. In my story, we are trying to make contact with another dimension. Of course, I don’t know that at first. My world is Oxford College. I’m too young to be a real student. I prefer to roam the streets and get into trouble. But all that changes when the Gobblers start stealing children. When I go to live with Mrs. Coulter and find out her true nature. When I go North with the gyptians to rescue the stolen children and my uncle. When I am given the golden compass. The compass that tells only the truth—if you know how to read it. Here’s just one excerpt to give you a little taste of my adventures: · "Lyra stopped and turned to see a man lying on the snow with a gray-feathered arrow in his back. He was writhing and twitching and coughing out blood, and the other soldiers were looking around left and right for whoever had fired it, but the archer was nowhere to be seen. And then an arrow came flying straight down from the sky, and struck another man behind the head. He fell at once. A shout from the officer and everyone looked up at the dark sky." It’s a risky adventure, full of wonders and danger.