The narrative has a constant theme of questioning everything and defying authority and a kid needs to be old enough to grasp the concept of being able to make sound questioning before reading this and also old enough to know that lying is not a talent to be praised. Good guys have things like rabbits and pine Martin's. Bad guys daemons tend to be things like bugs, reptiles, wolves, and such. A person's soul in the books exists as an animal companion called a daemon and it can change while a kid is a kid but adults animal daemons are fixed on one type of animal which is tied to whether they are good or bad. There is violence and scary themes of having your soul ripped from you. There's also alot of sexual tension in the later books as Lyra approaches puberty. But the bad morals are that it glorifies lying as a good thing and rewards Lyra by getting out of tight spots by lying. The good morals is that Lyra is a strong, brave, loyal friend who stands up for what needs to be done even though it puts her life in danger.

The books have both good morals and bad morals. In the course of The Golden Compass, Lyra discovers her powerful intuition and her own bravery. Lyra finds trouble easily and lies often, but much of it is to protect herself and others. There's also underage drinking and smoking, and a bear drinks to drunkenness. Gory moments in skirmishes and battles include a heart ripped out and eaten, a jaw torn off, an arrow through the neck, gushing blood, and more. Two of those deaths are very sad for the main character, Lyra, who fears that she will also be experimented on.

Many children are kidnapped and experimented on, and some die after the experiments. Most readers, young adult and adult, will be more focused on this stunning world where humans each have a daemon (animal companion that's part of their soul). This book is often banned because of author Philip Pullman's take on religion, though it's quite specific to more dogmatic religious thought, and this plays much more of a role in the third book in the series, The Amber Spyglass, and the companion Book of Dust series. A mediocre movie was made of the book in 2007, and a better HBO miniseries began airing in 2019. Parents need to know that The Golden Compass is the first book in the highly acclaimed His Dark Materials series.

The golden compass series