Northern Lights (His Dark Materials Volume 1)

Literary Awards - Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (1996), Audie Award for Children's Titles (2000), Lincoln Award Nominee (2005), Carnegie Medal (1995) 

Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half wild and carefree among the scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. Her destiny will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch clans reign and ice bears fight. And the extraordinary journey that awaits her will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...