Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Email | RSS

Podcast #064

For my sixty-fourth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Kat Zhang about the classic fantasy novel The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman. Originally published in the UK with the title Northern Lights, The Golden Compass is first of three books (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass being the other two) that tell the adventures of a young girl, Lyra, and her demon Pantalaimon, as the search out to find the meaning of a mysterious Dust that’s got everyone panicked, and why something known only as the Gobblers are kidnapping children. Along the way she’ll meet an army of talking armored bears, prophesying witches, and the enchanting Mrs. Coulter, who may not be what she seems. In this book Philip Pullman creates a world that is both completely original and yet oddly familiar, and brings us one of the great characters of fiction in the form of the wild and big-hearted Lyra Belacqua.

Kat Zhang is author the YA series The Hybrid Chronicles, the middle grade novels The Emperor’s Riddle  and The Memory of Forgotten Things, the recently published picture book Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao, and coming in 2021, Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon. You can find Kat’s website at katzhangwriter.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Please link, share, comment, write a review or subscribe. Let me know what you think! And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page.

My next podcast will be with author Dan Richards about the middle grade historical supernatural thriller The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle. It will be published on Monday, November 18th.