Active Reads

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban unveils the darkening direction that the series is set for. With well executed character growth and a strong and unique plotline, this book sets itself apart from the previous two books without staying too far from the path of what readers have come to love about the series.This book being the 3rd installment to the Harry Potter series, written by J. K. Rowling contains 22 chapters sharing 435 pages. This book is significantly larger than the others of the series thus far but certainly does not read that way.

The story follows Harry as he deals with a murderer on the loose that has a desire to kill Harry. This leads to extra security around Harry and all the young wizards in general by releasing creatures called Dementors. These creatures guard the wizard prison normally, but after this murderer escapes, they have been tasked with hunting the murderer down and taking him back to prison.These creatures play a pivotal role throughout the story and have an attraction to Harry and his dark past. This causes Harry a lot of grief as throughout the year they are patrolling the Hogwarts castle.

We are introduced to some new characters in this book such as Professor Lupin, who is the 3rd defence against the dark arts teacher since the start of the series. A job that has become notoriously high in retention rate. Perhaps Dumbledore really is awful at running a school and picking the right faculty. Lupin is a sudo father figure to Harry as he progresses throughout the year. Harry is taught how to ward off Dementors by Lupin after watching the professor fight them off on the train heading to Hogwarts at the beginning of the school year. Lupin also knew Harry’s parents and fought with them in the last war. Lupin really cares for Harry and wants to make sure that his friend’s child (Harry’s father) is looked out for. Another new character is Sirius Black, the man who escaped the wizard prison of Azkaban. This character develops mostly to the tail end of the series but is a very interesting character. Without spoiling it here to readers I won’t say much more other than there is more to him then murder.