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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the
third book of the series and my personal favorite...
The book starts before Harry's third year at
Hogwarts, during summer break. (For those
of you who wonder, the scholarship at Hogwarts is 7 years, so there
will be 7 HP books and not one more, Rowling has said so!) Not
a happy vacation to look forward to for Harry though... The Weasleys have gone to Egypt to visit Bill, the big brother who is a
"curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding bank", and Harry isn't even
allowed to receive phone calls from his Hogwarts friends. But at
least, for the first time of his life, he receives birthday cards when he turns thirteen...
The Dursleys are as unkind as ever and as if
it were not bad enough, they have invited
aunt Marge, who can't seem to refrain from
insulting Harry and his dead parents. This is too much for Harry:
driven by anger, he uses magic even though this will undoubtedly
have him expelled from Hogwarts (he'd already had a first warning
the year before). In frustration and desperation, Harry packs his
things and leaves the Dursleys's house.
However, to his greatest surprise, not only is Harry not forbidden
to practice magic or to go back to Hogwarts, but he's welcomed to
Diagon Alley with relief by the Minister of Magic himself! He's
advised to take a room at the Leaky Cauldron until school begins and
not to show himself in the muggle world... (world where the regular
people, or "muggles", live.)
The unusual intervention of the Minister seems
to be connected to Sirius Black, a wizard who represents a threat to
other wizards and even to muggles. Sirius,
who was sent to the fortress of Azkaban after murdering 13 people
with a single curse, has recently escaped...
Why does everybody think that Sirius might be
a threat to Harry? What awful truth are they hiding from him? Who
are the terrible Dementors that Harry seems to fear more than Voldemort himself? And how is Hermione keeping up with her busy
schedule?
These questions and others will be resolved in
the course of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. As
well as the unraveling of a mystery
in which nothing is what it seems to be, Harry
Potter's fans will enjoy new magical places and items, like the
knight bus, the marauder's map or Hogsmeade, a wizard village full
of magic and treats shops, where third-years-and-above
Hogwarts students spend their leisure time (And will Harry be able
to join them, since students need parental authorization to go
to Hogsmeade?).
More new characters are introduced, each with
their particularities, like Professor Trelawney, the Divination
teacher, whose sole purpose in life seems to be predicting
catastrophes to Harry, or strange Professor Lupin, who, to Harry's
greatest joy, often clashes with his almost-worst
nightmare, Professor Snape...
The mystery itself and its solution are
cleverly plotted by Rowling, who once again concocted a masterpiece.
Anybody (child or adult) who is not familiar with Harry Potter yet,
don't lose another minute and run to your local library, to the
nearest bookstore, anywhere you can get a copy of Harry Potter's
books, I promise that
you won't regret it... (and please, don't spoil the
fun and the suspense: read them in the right order!!!)
According to The Internet Movie
Database (IMDB), you'll have to wait until
2004 for the movie, the shooting begins in 2003 and none of the new
cast members have been revealed yet, as of July 30th,
2002, that is...
Rating:
© Discussing Books,
07/30/2002 |
Critiques
