Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling (2001, Paperback)

Heres a review of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban


As Harry Potter begins his third year as a student at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, he is disturbed to discover that Sirius Black, a wizard who may have been involved with the death of his parents, has escaped from Azkaban Prison. Black left behind two clues, both of which indicate that he is headed for Hogwarts--and Harry. As a result, the school is being watched over by the Dementors, a terrifying sect of black-cloaked guards from the Azkaban Prison--whose very presence at Hogwarts has a potentially life-threatening effect on Harry. Meanwhile, he gets acquainted with Professor Lupin, Hogwarts's new teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Harry also wonders about his new teacher's secretive relationship with Professor Snape. This is the third entry in the wildly popular Harry Potter series of books, and a film version directed by Alfonso Cuaron was made in 2004.

If you want to find out more read the book.

I would have to say that this book was a pivotal book not only in Harry Potter's life, but in JK Rowling's writing career as well.

For Harry, his past begins to reveal itself and danger comes ever closer to his reluctant sanctuary (ie-the Dursley's residence). For Rowling, her stories are no longer stand alone mysteries that share a common location, but are part of a larger story.

These changes are perfectly timed, as the 8th grade is a pivotal time. It is at this age that children are in between true childhood but not quite yet a young adult. We see changes in Harry, Hermione and Ron that indicate the change.

For one, Draco becomes less of an enemy and more like a pest-problems that they used to have no longer seem to matter, or at least not as much. The spells that Harry and his friends learn are likewise indicative of their maturity. Harry is learns to cast a protective patronus years ahead of his peers, which shows that he has matured beyond his peers. Harry takes his last, irrevocable step into adulthood when he choses to spare the life of his parent's betrayer so he can stand trial.

On the surface, Rowling does not "sanitize" the book as much as she did with the other two, a trend that continues with the rest of the series. Some people say that Prisoner was the last "children's" book and that Goblet of Fire begins her "young adult" books. While I agree with that assessment, I also think that JK was having her books grow up as her children did. We not only see character development in our heros, but in the writing style as well.

But her level of writing maturity does not end there. Each of the first two books had a beginning, middle and end. Each book was self contained. You could read Chamber of Secrets before Sorcerer's Stone and not miss much. Not so anymore. If you read any of the other books out of order, you could follow the plot but all the richness of her literary devices will not make sense to you.

I think what truely sets JK Rowling as a master story teller is that this book does not suffer from the "middle book funk". Too many book writers and movie produces use this excuse to cover their own laziness (sadly, too many people accept this excuse and keep wasting hard earned money on trash).

JK is able to produce a good book by following the same success formula that Marvel and DC comics did-have complete endings for the sub-plots so the readers feel satisfied. Rowling gives us plenty of satisfaction: the innocent escape death, the betrayer's cover is blown, Harry earns the respect of the people needs to rely on in later books and preparations are being made, at least by some, for the storm that they now know will come.

The greatest weakness I found was her assigning value and meaning to items from the first two books. When they were first written, these items were only described so much as to provide ambience. By retro-actively assigning significance to them, she created a feeling of artificialality that comes with forcing a plot device. This was corrected in later books and a much smoother flow will take place.

In short, Prisoner of Azkaban is a wonderfully writen transition book that takes Harry from being a child into adulthood and takes JK Rowling from being a great entertainer into a master storyteller.

John Holland-author of Necklace of Terrersylvanous

THIS THIRD BOOK IN THE HARRY POTTER SERIES "HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN" AGAIN BRINGS US TO HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY WHERE HARRY IS NOW IN THIS THIRD YEAR OF SCHOOL. AT THE START OF TERM, A DANGEROUS PRISONER NAMED SIRUS BLACK HAS ESCAPED THE TOP SECURITY PRISON IN THE WORLD, AZKABAN. RUMOR HAS IT THAT BLACK HAS ESCAPED JUST TO FIND AND KILL HARRY TO AVENGE HIS 12 YEARS LOCKED UP IN PRISON. SECURITY TIGHTENS AROUND HOGWARTS, BUT MYSTERIOUS THINGS KEEP HAPPENING, INDICATING BLACK GETTING EVER CLOSER TO HARRY. CAN HARRY SOLVE ALL THE CLUES IN ENOUGH TIME TO WARD OFF BLACK? OR WILL BLACK WIN HIS CAUSE, AND HUNT DOWN AND KILL HARRY POTTER?

Third in the Harry Potter book and movie saga, this story by J.K. Rowling is one of my favorites!

Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts! He gets warned that someone may be out of the wizarding prison Azkaban, and might be trying to kill him! Sirius Black was accused of murdering thirteen Wizards with a single curse in a Muggle inhabited area. He is also said to be a loyal servant of the Dark Lord Voldemort, even after 12 years in prison.
Once the safest place for Harry Potter to possibly be (Hogwarts) may now be compromised by a traitor in their midst!


Winner of the Whitbread Award for Children's Literature, Booklist 1999 Editor's Choice, A Los Angeles-Times Best book of 1999, Winner of the 1999 Gold Medal Smarties Prize, An ALA Notable book, and A New York Public Library Title for Reading and Sharing.

Anyone who enjoyed the first two Harry Potter books should also like Prisoner of Azkaban. It has an excellent plot with lots of fascinating new creatures and characters. The pacing is very good--fast moving but never confusing. Like most of the Harry Potter books, nothing is really as it seems and the ending twists in a completely unexpected way. There's lots of humor too.

The only thing I didn't like (which annoys me in all the Harry Potter books save the first) is that the descriptions of characters are repeated and events from the first two books summarized again when they come up. There are many continuing plot and character threads from the first two books, and the Harry Potter series is clearly intended to be read in order from beginning to end, so I really don't feel this repetition is necessary (it's easy to skip over, though). Speaking of the fact it's a series, don't buy this book if you haven't read the first two.