Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, part of the His Dark Materials series, has been named as the best children’s book of the last seventy years, picked from a list of the seventy winners of the prestigious Carnegie Medal, first set up by the Library Association in 1936 (Arthur Ransome was the first recipient for Pigeon Post, more recent winners include the controversial Junk by Melvyn Burgess which some dubbed ‘the teenage Trainspotting’ but which the librarians thought was a good book for that age group; the kids agreed with them, so who cares what the naysayers said?). Pullman’s books have been bestsellers to young adults since before the Harry Potter novels exploded into the huge success they are and I’ve noticed a fair bit of crossover from fans of each series tending to pick up the other, although for my personal taste the Pullman books are a far better read, being well written adventure fantasies which touch on responsibility and morality without lecturing to the reader (not that this has stopped some religious folks complaining Pullman’s books have some anti-Christian message).
(Dakota Blue Richards – you’d probably have to be an actor with a name like that – in the upcoming movie adaptation of the Northern Lights, being made under the US title of the Golden Compass)
A film using the US title, The Golden Compass, is in production at the moment, starring Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards and Sam Elliot. Like the Potter novels the Pullman books are also issued with ‘adult’ covers so grown-ups can read them on the train without being embarrassed to be seen reading a children’s book in public, although in my opinion the Pullman novels are easily the equivalent of any adult fantasy and quite probably better than a number of them (and I’ve known adults who have struggled with them – Pullman does not dumb down for a younger audience, his readers have to work their brain, which is a good thing). Recommended fantasy reading for younger and older readers alike.
Fri, Jun 22, 2007
Awards, Books, Film, TV and radio