SuitabookThe Firework Maker’s Daughter
Philip Pullman
- Reading
- Read alongside Lila’s changing choices, pausing after major setbacks to predict what she may do next. Afterwards, revisit the firework display and ask how the story balances danger, achievement and family responsibility.
- Themes
- Determination and achievement: Lila is determined to become a firework-maker and undertakes a dangerous journey to prove or fulfil that ambition. The narrative presents Lila as strong-willed and depicts her dream as realised, while linking success with talent, courage and luck.
- Family responsibility: Lila’s father is falsely imprisoned and depends on her help with a firework display intended to secure his release. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Danger and transformation: Lila enters flames at Mount Merapi while seeking Royal Sulphur and is described as becoming transformed by the world. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- The book includes life-threatening danger involving fire and volcanic flames, a character being falsely imprisoned, and an animal connected with the imprisonment episode. The ending is described as breathtaking, but its emotional detail is unclear.