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What an excellent post! There is indeed a lesson in Pullman and that's not to listen to bluster about books being offensive or irreligious or anything like that - Pullman is actually incredibly knowledgeable about religion, scripture etc - and what's more, he is not anti-faith and is not anti-Catholic (the Magisterium is in fact based on Calvinism). He is indeed against religious intolerance though, and religion being used to dominate and is all for people thinking for themselves; honesty and living a full life is one of his main themes. He's an incredibly sensitive writer for children, and there's lots of 'meat' for the grown-ups too.
I have to say I'd feel far more comfortable with a child, particularly a girl, reading HDM than Narnia as the former gives them the message that they need to be brave and honest above all (Lyra has to be one of the all-time heroines of literature), the latter that they should never grow up, which is not such a great message. I'm interested because I do not know...was Narnia written before or after Joy Gresham?
What with Lyra and Hermione Grainger, we do have some fab, interesting heroines being created these days...
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