Interesting that that US article says "His Dark Materials was also occasionally categorised in shops as a children’s book...". In the UK it was certainly published as a children' book. We bought the first volume for my son, then aged 14, who was into science fiction - as I was at that age. Later, when it began to be 'critically acclaimed', and the anti-religeous subtext discussed, I read it.

I remember thinking that the idea of the daemon was clever and the plot was silly, but overall that it was definitely a children's book. That's not a criticism - I think as a teenager I would have enjoyed it, as I enjoyed Lord of the Rings and Ghormenghast (which I heard of from Ralph McTell).

I watched the programme about Pullman, yesterday. I thought Rowan Williams' comments were sensible: "It's a story!"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09vdpzw