"Lyra's world is a world very much like ours, in a parallel universe.  Much of it would be familiar to us- the continents, the oceans, Brytain, Norroway, and the North Pole... much is shockingly different.  In Lyra's world a person's soul lives on the outside of their body in the form of a daemon- a talking animal spirit that accompanies them through life always close to its corporeal half.  A child's daemon can change shape, assuming all the forms that a child's infinite potential inspires; but as a person ages their daemon gradually settles into one form, according to their character and nature.  The bond between human and daemon is extraordinarily powerful- a person without a daemon in Lyra's world would be seen as horribly mutilated- and trifling with this connection is taboo in the extreme.

LYRA is a twelve-year-old girl who has been left by her Uncle Asriel to be raised by the scholars and fellows of Jordan College, Oxford.  Half-wild, a teller of tall stories and an adventurer at heart, she also has the makings of a lady.  When the mysterious Mrs. Coulter arrives in Oxford and offers her a chance to go North in the footsteps of her uncle, she leaps at the chance.  But things are not as they seem, and Lyra's resolve and spirit are tested as she strives to rescue her kidnapped friend Roger from the clutches of the Gobblers and the fearsom Magisterium."

"In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend and other kidnapped children from terrible experiments by a mysterious organization.  Adaptation of the Carnegie Medal-winning novel by Pullman, the first volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy. In a parallel Oxford, young Lyra Belacqua begins a dimension-crossing odyssey that builds from a merely atypical children's adventure into a complex (and frequently quite dark) philosophical epic." (Tom Aylward-Nally).

"Lyra Belaqua, living in Oxford's Jordan College, is not but a young girl living among scholars. Her world may seem diverse, from physical embodiments of souls that take the shape of an animal, but similar with people around you to become friends and enemies. She is thrown into a perilous adventure when she overhears a conversation of an extraordinary microscopic particle, Dust. This particle is said to unite different worlds, and is feared by many who want to destroy it forever. As Lyra is flung into the middle of this horrible struggle, she meets wondrous creatures both big and small, and villains who are not what they seem. Gobblers, that kidnap children, will turn out in the most unexpected places. And a magical compass of gold that will answer any question if one is skilled enough to read it. Lyra's adventure continues throughout these three books, and the first is about to be told." (Reaz).

"It was no ordinary life for a young girl: living among scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College and tearing unsupervised through Oxford's motley streets on mad quests for adventure. But Lyra's greatest adventure would begin closer to home, the day she heard hushed talk of an extraordinary particle. Microscopic in size, the magical dust- found only in the vast Artic expanse of the North -was rumored to possess profound properties that could unite whole universes. But there were those who feared the particle and would stop at nothing to destroy it. Catapulted into the heart of a terrible struggle, Lyra was forced to seek aid from clans, gyptians, and formidable armored bears. And as she journeyed into unbelievable danger, she had not the faintest clue that she alone was destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle..." (Krista).