Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: J.K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter #3
Genre: Middle Grade/Fantasy/YA
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication Date: October 1st, 2001
Edition: Paperback, 435 pages
Source: Owned
Synopsis:
For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero, who's forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard "accidentally" causes the Dursleys' dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.
As it turns out, Harry isn't punished at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black--an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban--is on the loose. Not only that, but he's after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards hired to protect him, chill Harry's very heart when others are unaffected? Once again, Rowling has created a mystery that will have children and adults cheering, not to mention standing in line for her next book. Fortunately, there are four more in the works.
It took me a lot longer to read this than it should have. That freaking reading slump really threw a wrench in the plans I had to read the Harry Potter series in one year. Something that should have totally been doable, yet here I am it taking me MONTHS to read this book (started it in July), when it should have taken me a week at most.
This was the first Harry Potter book I had ever read, way back in Ye Old Days of 2003, around the time the second HP movie came out. I had seen the first two movies, read the third book then went back and read the first two books and then this one again. I was in high school. For a long time, it was my favorite book, because it was the book that drew me into the world of Harry Potter and I've been here ever since.
I don't know what I can say about this book that hasn't already been said. But this is really the book when you start to really see the evil and dark things in this magical world. The dementors are creepy AF, the honestly inhumane prison (I get that the worst of the worst are sent there, but come on...). It's just the first glimpse that there is more than Voldemort who has capabilities of being truly evil.
Since it's been a while since I've read the books, I forgot how much Hermione cries. That might have been one of the reasons why her character was changed for the movies. But really, I think it's a way of dumbing down her character. Hermione is a very emotional character, and there is nothing wrong with that. By making her more "stoic" for the movies it's saying that being emotional is weak.
One thing that while it is something kids are likely to do, I felt was drawn out a bit too far for what it was over was when Ron and Harry got pissed at Hermione for the broom situation. It was just really petty and I felt them staying angry at her went on too long.
I do like the call back from book one when Hagrid first mentions Sirius and the motorcycle. It was a foreshadow that tied in pretty nicely into this book.
I'm just really happy I finally have the time, and mental fortitude, to start reading this series again. I started it so long ago and should have gotten through it in a year but life just gets in the way sometimes.
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