Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The Harry Potter series is one of my favorite series to be enjoyed anytime. I’ve read the books many times, but Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is my favored book. Each book has more details than the movies and that’s why I prefer it.

 “I don’t go looking for trouble, trouble usually finds me.” Harry enunciated and the readers couldn't agree with him more while experiencing J.K Rowling’s third masterpiece ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’. The book itself is just as exciting and action-packed as the rest of the books in the series. Though I personally think this is the best so far.  I really like that we take a break from the Voldemort plotline, and get a better look at Harry’s parents’ past. The story is amazing.  I love how Rowling takes her readers into the Harry Potter world with the twists and turns, the suspense, the adventure and then side stories about trust and friendship. The plot starts when an infamous prisoner Sirius Black, escapes Azkaban the dreadful prison for wizards and witches. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort. He has left two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter’s defeat of You-Know-Who was Black’s downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, “He’s at Hogwarts…He’s at Hogwarts…!” Harry Potter isn’t safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his excellent teachers, friends and Prof. Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

  This book is full of suspense and adventures. First of all, there is the terror and uncertainty of Sirius Black at large throughout the novel – how did he escape? Where is he now? What does he plan to do once he finally gets Harry at Hogwarts? On the other hand, Harry gets snippets of information about why Black is after him in particular, though everything he hears confuses him and readers also. For example, as a precaution, the Ministry of Magic enlists the help of dark, forbidding creatures known as dementors to guard the school.  But, why do the dementors chill Harry to the bone and render him powerless whenever they look at him? In this book, there is less world building and twisty, page turning and very satisfying plot. But, the part I love most about this book is we start to get more back stories about Harry’s parents and what exactly happened to them, a wonderful addition of  Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Lupin who gives Harry some valuable extra coaching. Also, I feel after introduction of the Marauders, Harry gets just a small feeling that Voldemort went after his parents for a specific reason that had to do something with him. The highlight of this book, in my opinion, is the time travel. It is actually carefully mapped out, borderline science fiction. It is brilliant and makes the latter part of the book into suspenseful reading.

 I always think the Harry Potter series teaches us a lot about importance of friendship through the bond between Harry, Ron, and Hermione. But their friendship is not presented in rose-colored glasses here. We see fights, personality conflicts, disagreements, and the difficulty of maintaining close friendship with people. But even with this difficulty, the trio always stays together. In the parallel storyline, they save a magical creature, Buckbeak.  The way they stand their ground firmly just shows how the trio is grown up together well. Harry couldn't have solved the mystery without his friends. Plus, we get some extra bang for our buck with this theme in Prisoner of Azkaban since it introduces us to an older generation of buds – the Marauders (James Potter, Sirius, Remus, and Peter). Though this tale of friendship glimpses into their past, I strongly feel it shows how close friendships operate in the adult world and in a time of war. Also, these friendships really play a very important role too in the story’s plot.

Most importantly, this book is a sort of a turning point in Harry’s life where he really begins to grow up. He becomes much more aware of the world around him. As this wizard saga revolves around the themes of betrayal, forgiveness, and suspense, Harry and his friends realize that people and creatures are not often who they appear to be. Those perceptions of enemies and even friends are sometimes misleading. I won’t want to give secrets away, but Professor Lupin turns out to be something more than he appears…!I personally believe that this book is guaranteed to make you read nonstop from beginning to end as you get hooked to strange creatures, astonishing secrets that you can never predict what’s going to happen. I also think that, when reading the Harry Potter series, if you get to Prisoner of Azkaban, you will definitely want to go on to read the rest. It gives you a just touch of what’s to come with the rest of the series.

All in all, the plot and characters are full of mystery and adventures. It stresses the importance of friendship and you will also learn more about the world around you as did Harry. An excellent book with a page-turning plot, Harry’s third year, Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban is a charm. Don’t miss it!