The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman.
I just finished his newish book, The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, which details how Lyra came to Oxford so I had to read TGC again because it's been ages.
Teaser...
Part 1: Oxford
Meet our protagonist, Lyra, and her daemon Pantalaimon (the shape-shifting animal that is her soul), or Pan for short. They live at Oxford University's Jordan College, among scholars and other brainy-types. Lyra is an orphan whose parents were killed when she was very young. Her uncle, Lord Asriel, is her guardian. He's a powerful and sometimes scary man involved with politics. For the most part, though, she is cared for by the scholars at Oxford University, where she is also friends with a kitchen boy named Roger.
When the book opens, Lord Asriel has returned from the North, where he has been conducting experiments involving something called Dust. What is Dust? Well, it's something very, very important in the book, and we later learn that the Church thinks Dust is, more or less, the equivalent of original sin. We also find out that Dust develops in children when they get older and their daemon stops shifting and takes on the form of a specific animal.
Back to the opening scene, Lyra figures out that Lord Asriel has been exploring the existence of different worlds – not heaven or hell, but worlds just like this one that exist in another dimensions. During this episode, Lyra also foils a plot by the Master of Jordan College to poison Lord Asriel, and her uncle returns to the North. In an overheard conversation between the Master and the Librarian, it also becomes clear that Lyra is destined to play a part in everything that's unfolding – but what kind of a part? We're still not sure.
Taken from
https://www.shmoop.com/golden-compass/summary.html