Happy 80th Birthday to author Philip Pullman.

There’s a bit in The Subtle Knife, Pullman’s second book of His Dark Materials trilogy, that once had me bawling my eyes out on a train, to the point where several other passengers came to check that I was ok. It’s supposedly a children’s book, but I was well into my 20s, studying for my PhD and I dove straight into The Amber Spyglass afterwards and had my mind blown his description of the Mulefa that showed both an incredible imagination and a great understanding of evolutionary biology. Writing like that sticks with you for a long time.

Don’t know what I’m referring to? I’m so excited for you to find out. If your students don’t know either - I’m so excited for them. Entry point on this slide is to discuss which animal daemon would be their lifelong companion, a feature of everyone in Lyra’s world.

-Bill