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Summary: Harry Potter Rocks the World
Review: You really don't have to be a kid to enjoy these books. They're suspenseful, entertaining, and it really gets kids reading. I myself am a Highschool junior. These books are the first books I've read in a long time that were really entertaining. I read the whole series and it's great. I recommend these books to everyone. My mum is a librarian and she says these books never stay on the shelves...The same will be true if you purchase these!
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Summary: A jolly, rollicking read
Review: You really have to like Rowlings' style: although she nominally aims at a young audience, it's easy to see why she appeals to an older folks too. She has a great imagination and dreams up interesting, realistic characters, and describes them so well that you feel you could reach out and touch them. What you don't always realise is that her descriptions are very economical: short and succinct. Her descriptive style is vivid and very visual, almost willing you to create a mental picture of what is transpiring. Her insights into people, their motivations, descriptions and mannerisms are acute and accurate. Rowling also has a great feel for words, and her puns and names are usually delicious."Prisoner of Azkaban" has all of this and more. The sheer fun of the writing hides the fact that the book is actually extremely skilfully plotted, better and tighter than most adult fare. It also hides the fact that there is some serious grown up vocabulary and grammer; it all fits together so well and is so accessible that the craft is unnoticeable. I have to admit that I was expecting a lower standard when I started the series, thinking nothing this hyped could be that good. But it is, especially this book. I hope it gets more kids to read.
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Summary: Amazing sequel to "Chamber"
Review: You will never have a favorite Harry Potter book- when you read the first book, you say: "WoW! The Sorcerer's Stone is the best book!"Then you read the Chamber of Secrets and you say: "Amazing! This one is even better than the first- this is definitely my favorite book!" But you haven't come across book three yet- and when you finish it you say: "Absolutely incredible! This one is my favorite book and is better than book 2!" Book three can only be described in one way- good, and every other synonym for good!
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Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: You've got to read this book! I'm a elementary education majorand read the first Harry book to find out what the fuss was allabout... now I'm hooked. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite so far. It was almost impossible to put it down.
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Summary: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Review: Young Harry is at it again! Always getting into trouble. Is the man that his parents trusted as thier best man at their wedding and best friend, the one who helped in the killing of his parents? Is he trying to get to Harry to kill him? Or was it even him? Will this book be the end of young Harry's life, or will he get out of his troubles once again? You will find out all of these things when you read this book. This book is even more adicting then the first and second book. Once you open it you won't be able to put it down!
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Summary: Harry Potter: one way trip to wonderland
Review: Young Hrry Potter enriches the mind with adventure, life, and an imagination that Rowling deeply expresses.
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Summary: Excellent, didn't even expect it to be this great!
Review: Young Potter runs away after break the restriction of underage wiZARDRY, Potter heads for Hogwarts, school of magic. But the 2 largest mysteries in Dumbledore's school are, Is Sirius Black, the murderer in Hogwarts? And who gave Harry his Firebolt as a replacement to his Nimbus two thousand?
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Summary: Fellow author thanks Ms. Rowling!!!
Review: Your books have gotten my daughter finally interested in reading. You were at a local book signing and I took her there on her birthday. You and she made a wonderful photo together, you are very personal in both your writing and real world styles. Thanks for turning Jackie on to reading!!! We are reading this one together. all the best...Ken Giuffre MD, author "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain"
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Summary: Not Rowling's best work.
Review: _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ is a book-long indulgence of J. K. Rowling's worst literary vice, her tendency to revel in misery and bang readers over the heads with anvils of her bullies' petty villainy. I do not mind dark stories - I gravitate toward them, in fact - but Rowling seems here to wallow in suffering for its own sake. While this material - a ghastly penitentiary which inflicts violating mental torments upon its prisoners, a painfully vivid look at the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Harry's parents, a hero who is steadily becoming ever more embittered and angry under the weight of his misfortunes - by necessity demands a somber hand, the complete, unrelenting saturation of wretchedness throughout drowns out the important, truly pauseworthy dark elements and deprives them of the focus they require. (The problem is exacerbated by the most aggravating incarnation yet of the endlessly-frustrating fact that while the heroes will happily rise to the occasion against the would-be world-conquering fiends which confront them, toward villains like Snape, Malfoy, and the Slytherins who spend their time plotting comparatively lesser but very real dangers and evils, they are greatly permissive. If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, then Good spends a conspicuous amount of time doing nothing in these books in general and this one in particular.) A dose of light is not the only thing missing from _Azkaban_. For one, this book doesn't delve as much into the world of magic as the others (we are presented with one promising opportunity in the students' occasional visits to the wizards' vilage of Hogsmeade, but we glimpse only a bit of one candy store and a pub and very little at all of the town proper). Also, while the previous books' many plot developments unfolded at a lively pace, _Azkaban_ has little sense of the passage of time, mired in a few dismal subplots - Gryffindor's seemingly cursed quest for the Quidditch Cup, a nasty rift between Ron and Hermione, a flaky, self-satisfied Divination teacher who plays the favoritism card almost as badly as Snape, Malfoy's gleeful endangerment of both Hagrid's new teaching job and the very life of one of the gameskeeper's most beloved pets - which mostly stagnate, unchanging, until the end of the book, stifling any sense of adventure in the process. And while the _Harry Potter_ endings have probably been the series's strongest, most memorable parts, in contrast to the thrilling climactic confrontations with the meaty villains of the first two volumes, _Azkaban_'s denouement is limp and unsatisfying - and at times muddled in terms of who's where doing what, the literary equivalent of bad stage direction. The book does have its flashes of strength. The Dementors, sepulchrous creatures guarding the Azkaban prison whose very presence invokes in those around them their most painful personal recollections, who feed on human misery, sucking "every good feeling, every happy memory" from their prey until they're "left with nothing but the worst experiences of [their lives]", and who can devour one's very soul are an emotional metaphor vivid enough to stand with Rowling's best such creations. New teacher Remus Lupin, who disarms his Hogwarts antagonists with unflappable politeness and good humor, brings a happy, much-needed infusion of self-confidence and good sense to the scene, and a harrowing flight from home at the beginning incorporates the best parts of the series' spirited feel for adventure and exploration of the curious workings of the bizarro wizard world. And though I've impugned the book's overuse of the dark, how it is seeded with creeping shifts towards the malevolent in Harry's behavior, unsettling portents of further discontent, is one of its most effective aspects. Still, however, although I'm not the biggest Harry Potter fan, most of the elements which I love of the books are missing from _The Prisoner of Azkaban_. I must say that it will probably go down in my eyes as the least of the series.
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Summary: Rowling's work reaches an even better level.
Review: _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ is a wonderful addition Rowling's series. It is the third book in the series, which should be read *in order.* It's the best way to understand and to fully enjoy the series. Book 3 is somewhat more complex and more mature than Book 1 and Book 2. I enjoyed Books 1 and 2; Book 3 made me a true Harry Potter devotee. I think its plot has considerably more emotional weight. It's not just a pleasantly exciting story; it deals with issues of trust and friendship that make you feel and think as you read. The basic premise of the book is simple: Sirius Black has escaped from the wizard prison, Azkaban, and is on the loose, looking for Harry. Adventures ensue. A wonderful character (perhaps my favorite in the series to date), Professor Remus Lupin, joins the Hogwarts cast. The book contains fascinating revelations about Harry's family and draws on small clues offered in the earlier books. As an evangelical Christian and an avid reader of fantasy, I'm aware that certain other Christians have condemmed the Harry Potter series as supporting the occult. That's pure rubbish. I would suggest that parents of very young Potter fans be careful to supervise the reading of Book 3 by their children. It is rather more frightening than its predecessors. Older children should be fine. All in all, _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ is a wonderful novel for children. Adult fans of Rowlings will also find a lot to enjoy in it. (Note: Pay attention to the characters' names. There are hints hidden within them!). This book and the series as a whole are highly recommended.
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