Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

J.K Rowling
Amie was the only entry in our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows competition. I think that you will agree with us here at Big Book Little Book when we say that while we didn’t receive the quantity of reviews we desired we certainly received quality.
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?
When deciding which Harry Potter book to review, it took me some time. I pondered over the The Philosophers Stone, because it’s the first one. Once Harry receives that very special letter, we discover a world with things such as Quidditch, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Gringotts Bank. And a world where magic is real.
Then I thought about the Deathly Hallows, because SO MUCH happens, so many hearts are broken and questions answered. With each turn of a page it really is like journeying on a roller-coaster. Although I knew, there’s always been one book that captured my heart most out of the seven.
Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban.
I remember exactly how I felt as I closed the book; I had fallen hook, line and sinker for Sirius Black, and my heart was aching for more.

In some ways I felt this took a (all be it slight) step back from the war with Voldemort. (Sorry – he-who-must-not-be-named.) I was able to get under the skin of lots of characters, find out lots of background information that effects present day relationships.
This book is the introduction of some great characters; Professor Lupin; the Hippogriff Buckbeak; Professor Trelawney; Cedric Diggory: Cho Chang: Sir Cadogan (Who guards the Gryffindor Tower entrance temporarily); the dementors (one of the scariest beings I’ve ever read about).
I also think this is a book where Harry changes a lot. He’s thirteen, which for me has always represented a turning age, you’re officially a teenager! Book three is where he realises how great of a wizard he is/can become, feelings stir ‘in the region of his stomach’ (Hello the beautiful Miss Chang), and Harry learns that even in the darkest times there is still hope, which we have to hold on to it even if it may break out hearts.
Prisoner of Azkaban also contains my favourite, LAUGH OUT LOUD line. Honestly, I just think of these words and I chuckle.

 “HARRY, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE A GENTLEMAN!’ Wood roared, as Harry swerved to avoid a collision. “KNOCK HER OFF HER BROOM IF YOU HAVE TO!”
Those two lines fill me with such happiness, it caught that atmosphere of that chapter perfectly.
There is so much more about this book that I could say, how it’s three-hundred-and-seventeen pages of thrilling teenage magical excitement. (And who honestly isn’t intrigued by the idea of a time turner?) It’s dark; it’s scary; it’s funny; it’s heart-warming; it’s heartbreaking.
I think that’s what I loved most about it, how it doesn’t disappoint you, it fills up, but makes sure to leave you wanting more.
Post by competition winner AmieSalmon