Review by Shirley Muramoto

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN - 1999 by J. K. Rowling Scholastic, Inc. Hardcover - $19.95

Who is Harry Potter?

He is a thirteen-year-old boy who gets a biting book for his birthday. A boy who turns his mean, hateful aunt into a giant aunt-shaped balloon. A boy who sneaks a flashlight under his covers, risking dire punishment in order to do homework. A boy who hates summer vacation. Obviously, this is no ordinary boy.

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN is J.K. Rowling's third tale in the enchanting (but far from perfect) world of the young wizard, Harry Potter. While the series is primarily aimed at the younger audience, there is enough here to interest more mature readers as well. As we follow along in young Harry's adventures, Rowling delights the reader with the wonders of magic. Yet at the same time, she exposes the very real darkness that plague us in our everyday lives - bigotry, greed, fear, and betrayal.

As always, the story opens with Harry living in misery at the house of his aunt and uncle, the Dursleys. The Dursleys are perfect examples of small-minded bigots. They are muggles (the Wizard term for non-magical people), and prefer to pretend that the world of magic does not exist at all. In all ways, they try to act and appear as "normal" to the outside world. Harry, who is decidedly not "normal," is the outcast of the family. The Dursleys tell everyone that Harry is a student at a boarding school for juvenile delinquents (St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys), and treat him horribly at every turn. When his uncle's sister ("Aunt" Marge) comes for a visit, she constantly refers to Harry as a "mongrel pup" and other such endearing terms (Such a lovely family...).

Harry's summer exile from the magical world ends abruptly when his anger at his "Aunt" Marge erupts (well to be fair, she did call him a underbred runt, his mother a bitch, and his father a wastrel - after all the cumulative abuse, even a saint would have lost his temper), and he finds himself spending the rest of his summer in the magical Diagon Alley. There, he is given the freedom to do as he pretty much pleases, so long as he doesn't try to return to the "normal" world until the start of the new school term.

Everyone in the wizarding world is alarmed by the escape of a dire criminal from the wizard prison of Azkaban. This escaped criminal, Sirius Black, was convicted for the murder of thirteen people with a single curse. And as Harry overhears in a conversation between his friend Ron's parents, it would seem that this murderer escaped with one goal in mind - to go after Harry.

This sets the dark mood for the rest of the book.

Throughout the story, mysterious and dark things happen to Harry, and several times his life is placed in real danger - pretty par for the course, really. But there are a few new twists. Creatures called dementors, embodiments of misery, are sent out by the authorities to seek out and recapture Black. With most people they seem to cause depression and hopelessness, but for Harry, the experience is much worse - he hears voices from his past, relives the moments when, as an infant, the evil wizard Lord Voldemort killed his parents, and tried to kill him. He hears the voice of his mother, screaming and pleading, moments before Voldemort ended her life. At one point, they cause him to fall from fifty feet in the air.

As in past books, Harry faces his fears head-on.

That's a recurring theme in Rowling's books - facing your fears and overcoming them with determination and courage. Rowling also seems to encourage readers to recognize petty bigotry, and not be small-minded and insular as all bigots tend to be. And she emphasizes that everyone has faults and shortcomings. Harry is not perfect. He's not a "perfect" student, he gets into spats with his friends, he breaks rules, and he gets into trouble here and there. He also doesn't understand everything that's going on around him, and sometimes he makes mistakes. But the important thing seems to be that he keeps trying, he keeps learning, and he wants to do the right thing.

However, Rowling's message is not the primary focus of the book - Harry's story is. Her touch is not so heavy as to smother you with moral lessons. She keeps her focus on the tale.

All in all, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN is an enjoyable book.

Three BookWyrms.

This review copyright 2005 E.C.McMullen Jr.

Return to Story Time