Avid kid-lit bookworms may know that "The Golden Compass" is the first installation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It's a story about an orphan named Lyra Belacqua who, like Harry Potter, lives in a magical parallel universe where people have daemons, animal companions with human souls. In this world, a group called Gobblers takes away poor orphan Gyptian children, and Lyra makes it her quest to find her friend Roger with the help of her daemon and a ragtag team of supporters. The film adaptation stars Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, and Daniel Craig.