This book follows Harry’s third year at Hogwarts.

Sirius Black, the eponymous Prisoner Of Azkaban, has escaped from the maximum security prison. The Ministry of Magic fear that he is on his way to Hogwarts to murder Harry Potter.

Sirius Black was convicted of aiding Voldemort by acting as a spy. It was his information that led Voldemort to Harry’s parents that fateful night they were killed. He was also found guilty of killing a wizard and twelve Muggles whilst trying to avoid capture. He had spent twelve years in Azkaban, and is reputed to have been driven insane.

This year there are two new teachers at Hogwarts. A well-known face turns up as the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and there is a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Care of Magical Creatures very quickly takes a nasty turn as an incident in the very first lesson leads to a student being injured. The student in question takes full advantage of the injury, and not only tries to get the teacher sacked, but also tries to see the creature responsible put to death.

The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher comes complete with his own set of secrets. Some are only minor, but a few will raise an eyebrow or two.

With an escaped prisoner on the loose, the Ministry have stationed guards from Azkaban at Hogwarts. They have a nasty effect on everyone they come in contact with, but Harry is affected by far the worst.

In amongst all this, Harry still finds time to play Quidditch, create a spot of mischief before he leaves for school, and helps Hermione to break not only a few school rules but a few wizarding laws as well.

Although the book tries to retain its origin as a book for children, as Harry is growing up the darker the books are getting and the more they start to appeal to older teens and adults.

There are some great scenes as Sirius Black tries to commit the murder he has planned. JK Rowling has held nothing back in writing these scenes, and that is what will appeal most to adults.

In this book we are introduced to the feared guards of Azkaban, who can leave their victims with a fate worse than death. In the words of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher they are “among the foulest creatures that walk this Earth”. JK Rowling did an excellent job writing the scenes with these creatures and they would leave any child either begging for more or with nightmares for a week.

The other thing I really liked with this book is that Voldemort was not the driving antagonist. This made a nice change from the first two books. It is easy to be left with the impression that without Voldemort, there would be nothing to drive the book from evil’s perspective.

The inordinate number of speech tags used. I didn’t notice it quite so much in the first two books, but in this book there is a “he said”, “she said”, “Harry said”, or something similar after practically every line of speech.

I know that it’s common to see speech tags used in children’s literature, but in a series that gained appeal to a much wider audience than originally intended, I would have expected to see a lot less speech tags used.

In many scenes they are not needed as it is either obvious who is speaking or there is an action of some description tacked on to the speech tag that makes it obvious who is speaking to whom.

Jump straight in to the fourth book.

If anything, I hate Professor Snape more than ever. He was bad enough in the first two books, but in this book he is spiteful and vindictive.

I’ve always enjoyed reading a well-written antagonist, and Professor Snape is brilliantly written.

J K Rowling OBE. She was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England in 1965. She graduated from University of Exeter in 1986 with a BA in French and Classics.

Harry Potter has become the best-selling book series in history, and the films have become the highest-grossing film series ever.

From her initial concept of Harry Potter in 1990, until the publication of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone in 1997, JK had survived on state benefits. She is now the UK’s best-selling living author with sales in excess of £238 million. In 2008, she was the twelfth richest woman in the UK.

There are enough mysteries going on in this book to keep even Miss Marple guessing!

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Created Jan 13, 2015 at 10:16am • Submit your own review...