PHILIP__PULLMAN_________HIS DARK MATERIALS_________PLEASE HELP ME

There are lots of children in different capacities Kanga, mostly in the different worlds.

Hi Kanga,

I'll keep my fingers crossed for him. What part is he up for?

The books centre around Lyra, a girl who lives in a parallel world to our own. In her world many places have the saem or similar names, but have evolved differently. in some ways this other world is behind ours in others ahead. The main difference is that in this world you effectively wear your soul on your sleeve. Everyone has a daemon which is effectively your soul in creature form.

Lyra is a ward of a college in Oxford. Her freind is kidnapped by some evil types and she goes off in search of him. Its a kind of conspiracy / science fiction / fantasy thing.

Its far too difficult to try to summarise as so much happens. Its a fantastic book so do read it if you can you'd really enjoy it!

I think the thread is invisible (except when you are severing it). Can't remember what happens when it's cut - but it's bad.

stich has the story right - another aspect is that most of the characters have as a part of themselves a daemon that has the form of an animal. The daemon's are as I recall attached to their owners by a thread, so they are always around somewhere (but may hide). Children's daemons can change form according to the mood of the owner, adult's daemons take a permanent form reflecting the character of the adult. The lead boy character doesn't have a daemon, in his world (like ours) people don't. One of the plots is an evil woman separating deamons from their child owners (with bad consequences), so a lot of children in that bit.

its science fiction fantasy. about two kids, from parallel ish worlds. the boy comes from our world. he gets to be the keeper of the subtle knife which can cut windows between worlds, so the girl and th e boy can travel between different worlds. the boy doesnt have a dad, he got sucked into a world when the window was left open, and so was brought up without his dad. it has affected his childhood.
or it could be for the part of the girls friend in the first, where the child has suffered humongous loss.
good luck. hope he enjoys himself.

Can't help, but good luck Kangaboy!