Wow. This book totally blew me away. I found myself unable to put it down. I even found myself on the verge of crying out, "Hooray!" during one particularly daring rescue. (I'm not generally this emotive a reader, so this says a little something about this book, I think.) The characters are complex; like real people, the "good guys" aren't clearly good and the "bad guys" aren't clearly bad. I love the moral ambiguity, and I can see this touching off some very interesting conversations between children and adults as they read these books. I've only read the first book, but I really can't see the fuss about Pullman promoting atheism to kids and all that. On the contrary, I found this to be quite a spiritual story. It is set in a parallel universe in which the Church has maintained power into the 20th century (no reformation, no enlightenment, apparently). I can see that it might be a warning about power and the lengths to which those in power go to retain that power, but I don't see this as anything near an indictment of God or the belief in God (unless you believe that God and religion are inextricably linked, which I do not). 
 I plan to pick up the second book from the library tomorrow, so I'll see if my opinion changes after reading it. Regardless of the controversy, I found this an incredibly entertaining read. I look forward to sharing it with my daughter once she's past the Curious George stage.