The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage

Gr 9 Up—This first in a companion series to Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy introduces listeners to a familiar world through the eyes of Malcolm Polstead, an innkeeper's son in Oxford. Malcolm, a curious, kind, and generally ordinary boy, is quickly swept up in what seems on the surface to be local intrigue—that is, until Malcolm accidentally becomes a spy in a clandestine war between the Magisterium, the religious body seeking to control the populace, and a secret government organization known as Oakley Street. With the sometimes knowing and sometimes unknowing help of many local residents, a local scholar who happens to specialize in reading the alethiometer (a mysterious truth-telling device), and a priory of nuns close to his parents' inn, Malcolm risks everything to protect Lyra Belacqua, the baby everyone is suddenly intensely interested in. Michael Sheen does a spectacular job narrating this audiobook, pulling listeners in easily and enveloping them in the detailed world that Pullman creates.