From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Wed, 02 May 2001 20:38:50 -0400

I'll bite, especially after reading the collateral essays on Amazon which seem to focus on how much these are books adults will appreciate. Without disagreeing with that statement, I believe these are quite spectacularly children's books in which Pullman is careful to include story elements that appeal to younger readers (including the big religious questions) and to exclude the sex which more commonly appears in works for adults or genuine young adults. Rereading his three volumes along with Paradise Lost, this spring, I was struck by Pullman's different description of what happened between his Adam and Eve after the fall. Milton's characters "their fill of love and love's disport/Took largely." Lyra and Will talked, bathed, ate, kissed, and held hands much as Adam and Eve did in Milton before she met up with the serpent. At least in the words on the page, Lyra and Will are as chaste as we could wish any 14-year-old couple to be, though realistically aware of the sexual attraction. Besides all its other attractions, this is a moving first-love story, describing another important part of growing up.

-Kathy Isaacs Edmund Burke School kisaacs at mindspring.com
Received on Wed 02 May 2001 07:38:50 PM CDT