Book: Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Publishing Info: Published by Scholastic, Inc.; 435 pages; Paperback

Goodreads Summary: 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? 

I know a lot of people have said this, but Prisoner Of Azkaban is my favorite Harry Potter book.  I just love the storyline, and so many things that happen in the rest of the series are set in motion in this book.

We get to meet Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew in this book, and they are a connection to Harry’s parents because they were all best friends.  Until Pettigrew turned traitor and gave up James and Lily to Voldemort.

There are so many things I love about Prisoner Of Azkaban- the Marauder’s Map (and learning who the Marauders are!), the time turners, Hagrid teaching Care Of Magical Creatures, and the introduction of Trelawney.

Random Movie Sidenote: I loved Emma Thompson as Trelawney.

Back to the book, though.  You really start to see a lot of the characters start to grow up- or even see them in a different way.  It’s no wonder Snape didn’t trust Lupin, because of the prank that Sirius did.

Overall, it gets a 5 out of 5.  It’s my favorite, and one of the strongest books in the series.