Book 3 (already!) for the Harry Potter re-readalong. It is now the summer before the 3rd year of Hogwarts. Harry is once again at home with the Dursley’s nothing has changed… in fact now that they know that Harry is not allowed to perform magic outside of school, things have become a bit worse. When things do go terribly wrong, Harry finds himself on his own trying to get to Diagon Alley two weeks before school starts and discovers there is a Knight Bus for witches and wizards in need.
When the third year begins Harry overhears that a recent madman has escaped from Azkaban, and for some reason he has his sights set out for Hogwarts, and more importantly Harry. Dementors are now protecting the school… but not always the students. While the teachers are over protective of Harry for this reason, they will not give him the details as to why this man would be coming after him.
Hogwarts for Harry….. NEVER easy.
Of course Harry is hanging out with Ron and Hermione again… a particularity tense year as Hermione now has a cat who really would like to sample Ron’s rat Scabbers. Hermione also disappears a lot – returning usually looking disheveled and worried constantly about her studies.
It is a year of once again trying for the Quidditch cup, avoiding Malfoy’s sneering and jeering, a new (yet familiar) magical creatures teacher, and of course yet another new Dark Arts Teacher.
Harry works hard to keep himself safe all the while worried about sighting of this man named Sirius Black. Why would someone he had never heard of want to kill him?
The Prisoner Of Azkaban is the first of the books where you start to feel that Harry is growing up a bit. He is no longer a scared little newbie to the wizarding world and is growing into his own. It is funny to think that I do not recall every really enjoying this book that much but found this time around that I really got into it.
Harry’s friendship with Ron and Hermione is solid… although Hermione causes quite a bit of drama in this book, they are still friends…angry friends, but not like in the first book where she cries in the bathroom and is attacked by a troll…. no nothing like that. 🙂 Harry also holds his own on the Quidditch field, an important part of the team he loves being the Seeker (you will see that even comes with trials this time around).
I think what I love the most about the book is the introduction of the Mauder’s Map and the 4 students who had created it. This group of rebels that once ruled the school have passed their knowledge on and it is in Harry’s hands. I love that so much and I love the connections that he has tot he map that he does not even know about.
Great introduction of key characters take place here as well… we are introduced to Sirius, Lupin, and even Peter…. (well played JK, well played). This casual introduction will play out as the books continue.
I found this particular read to be so engaging I could not wait to get back to it. Not sure if it is the season, the mood, or what… but I fully wanted to engage this magical works and not come out. Feeling a little bit like Harry in the end, not ready to go back to everyday life… but knowing there is the promise of more to come.
This book was read for the Harry Potter re-readalong. It is a delight to be reading and rereading these books with a group from all over the world!
Book Journey 
I loved the Prisoner of Azkaban too, and the marauders map was brilliant as the English would say lol. Harryès Patronus was brilliant too ! 🙂 btw. It was hard to write about it but I liked what you did here.
Brilliant! Love that word!
I am failing on the reread (granted I already reread all of them this year once) so I will probably pick up with Book 4 after the new year 🙂
No worries, pick up when you can 😀
You know, it’s not that I didn’t know the things I loved about “Azkaban,” like Lupin and Sirius and everything behind the Marauder’s Map, but in this reread it totally brought back the tension and all the wonderful details of back story that I love so much. I actually wrote my post on this a few weeks ago and it’s scheduled to go up on the date you have for the end of that reading 🙂 I’m about 3/4 through Goblet right now and am thoroughly enjoying this reread! 😀
Super! I look forward to your thoughts on this one! When did you set it to go live? The date was set for December 29th but it can go up any time I just do not want to miss it 😀 I am going to start Goblet on the plane… (more on that soon!)
I just looked at my reading chart which is keeping me on track with getting all the books in within your time frame and you’re right! I think my thinking was I wanted to leave my giveaways up through New Year’s Eve (I was hoping more people would enter them!), then on Jan. 1st my First Book of 2015 post goes up so I didn’t want to waste my Azkaban post. That’s why I dated it later. It goes up Jan. 5th 🙂
Perfect! I like the way you think. I plan my posts so they do not take away from each other as well 🙂
PS try linking your giveaways on twitter that draws traffic for me. Also Pinterest if you use it… who knew but putting your posts on Pinterest also brings in a lot of newbies 😉
Thanks, Sheila 🙂 You know, I’ve been so busy trying to get things organized and always feeling overloaded, I don’t remember to tweet these things. It’s my intention to do it, but if it’s not written down, it doesn’t happen. One of organization things is a chart for the blogs, posts and misc. things to do in relation to them. I don’t use Pinterest though do have an account there. At some point I’ll find a way to fit it in! lol
You are wordpress right? You can set up your posts to automatically go to Twitter. I am better at incorporating twitter than I used to be. Now I keep it open and grab links when I see them to put on there.
Yeah, I have it set up to post to Twitter, but that’s only for when the post is first published, not repeated. I know there’s a way of doing that, to schedule tweets, but still haven’t gotten around to learning that stuff. It’s part of my organizational plan to get that all under control 😀
After a bit of a struggle getting through the first two books, I have to say I’m thoroughly enjoying The Prisoner of Azkaban. I’m a little late starting it (around page 100 now) but hope to finish it up before year end. Have sincerely appreciated the support and encouragement I have had along the way. So glad I didn’t give up!
Oh I am so glad you are enjoying it Diane, this book introduces a lot of key happenings. 😀
OMG – just finished The Prisoner of Azkaban – LOVED IT! I’m a convert! Now I know what all the fuss was about with the Harry Potter phenomenon. Thank you to everyone who kept encouraging me to continue when I was struggling to keep interested. Going to let it all sink in now before starting Book 4 (it’s on my shelf ready and waiting though!) and start on my first book for 2015 – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – a reread before reading Queenie’s story.
Awesome!!! I am so glad! The 4th book will be going with me to Australia next week 🙂
Enjoy the vacation in Australia. Now that is truly Awesome!!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! And the thing is, once you’ve finished the whole series, if you decide to reread, you’ll be absolutely blown away by how she unfolded all the details and how much foreshadowing is packed in from the first book on. AMAZING!!! SO happy for you! 😀 And I actually have a library copy of “Harold Fry” here. It stunk with fragrance so I’ve been offgassing it for months. I hope I can get to it. I heard it’s good. Please let us know how you like it 🙂
I always thought the Scabber/Crookshanks interactions were hysterical. And I loved the Marauders map and it’s history as well. I think this is the first book where we actually start to get a lot of the history from before Harry’s birth. We’re given hints and tidbits in books 1 and 2, but nothing of this magnitude. It’s what makes the books so addictive. At least, for me. 😀 My HP3 Post. (I was too late to put it in the Linky. :D)
Hey, gang, I, too, forgot to post my link in the linky tools! So glad you mentioned it, Liesel 🙂 On my way to read yours and the others now! 😀
Here’s mine:
http://writersideup.com/2015/01/05/up-when-a-book-is-a-thrill-ride/