Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)

As always with Rowling's books, I loved Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! JK Rowling's words have a curious habit of coming to life, and her characters are funny, and realistic. One of the greatest things about Harry Potter, is that they improve with each book, and you can clearly glimpse the clever, intricate plot Rowling has wove, with cleverly placed foreshadowing and seemingly innocent hints.

Imagine if your elderly aunt or grandmother, in failing health and confined to a nursing home, invited you over to talk about your childhood and share with you her favorite family stories. Imagine if your wheezy, dying nana or auntie periodically lost touch with reality and began to make inane, baffling comments about children who cast spells and keep rats as pets and play a game that sounds like flying soccer. Now imagine that your granny's inane mutterings earned her the praise of her nurses, which encouraged your granny to add lots and lots of extra detail to her tales of adolescent wizardry. That's what you get with this book. J.K. Rowling's talent lies in conceptualizing and marketing the Potter universe, not writing about it. She should have hired ghostwriters after the first novel. Although she has a great work ethic and is a wonderful self-made success story, her writing is astonishingly simple, dull and directionless. I can understand how kids like these books - after all, children don't have much in the way of critical faculties. What I cannot comprehend are the adults who fawn over these padded and self-indulgent stories. Perhaps the most irritating part about the Potter series and particularly in this book is how Ron Weasley is constantly losing his temper and threatening to beat his tormentors. None of his outbursts seem convincing. My point? Even the parts of the book that are rooted in ordinary adolescent issues (Ron and his bullies) fall flat and feel contrived. Everything related to imagination and magic feels similarly implausible. I encourage other parents to find a less commercial and more inspiring series of books to read their kids.

This is by far the most exciting book out of the first three. As the characters mature within the HP universe, so does the ever growing sense that Harry Potter is being groomed to face Hogwarts greatest foe. There's a sense of repetitive narrative amongst the three books as far as the character arcs and plot twists, which rely on the complex relationship between the Gryffindor gang and Slytherin camp. But I understand that's the point of the series. Very emotive book with a pleasing conclusion. As I take a step back and review this for what it is a YA novel intended for any person at any age, this is a superb product. I really want to continue with the series but I promised myself I would pick up on another abandoned series I started 2 years ago...A song of fire and Ice. I will likely come back to Harry Potter after the summer.

So this is the third HP book and.... IT IS VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY GOOD!!!!!!!! I have read the first two plus this one so far and this one might be my favotite. Suprisingly it is NOT as intense as the first two. There is no monster type things like Fluff and the viper, and there is not really any violence either. The only scary characters in here are the demontores (who are gaurds and ghost type creatures at Azkaban and at Hogwarts-yeah....and are not THAT scary, but sometimes they do something to Harry….) And Sirus Black, (who is the 'Prisoner of Azkaban') but then -spoiler alert!- he actually turns out good in the end and it was a misunderstanding senario and is Harry's godfather! Yup so that's about it, but I would recomend being 10 or older before reading this series, (unless your an advanced reader:) ) some of it might just be to confusing and there is alot of action and SOME violence... just something to consider. If you LOVE this series as much as I do, then may I, Shannon Messenger, also recommend the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, (which is like my absolutely favorite series besides Harry Potter, obviously.) :) :) :)

I love all of the Harry Potter novels, but this one is by far my favorite! From the very first time I read it as a 7 year old (when the book first came out in 1999) I loved the change of pace from the other books in the series - for once, Lord Voldemort is not the main antagonist, and instead it's Sirius Black - or at least so we think! The ending contains one of the biggest plot twists in the entire series, and it's ultimately less about fighting evil and more about finding family and belonging. This purchase was actually a replacement - as my first edition copy had been read so many times by me, my sister, and my parents, that the binding was pretty much destroyed and the pages quite stained (because obviously putting the book away during lunchtime is not an option for 7-12 year old Potterheads)