Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-read 2/18/21:

I began teaching my dual-language daughter to read English last year during the quarantines. We quickly ran through the basic exercises and went straight into the good stuff, reading the first two Harry Potters with great fanfare, movie watching, and props.

She's doing well. Reading very well, with emphasis and understanding even though no school here has gone beyond anything more than days of the week. *groan*

I'm here to announce that Harry Potter is one of the greatest teaching tools. Good s**t is always better than practically anything else we could have tried.

Oh, and after all these re-reads, and despite knowing the story so well, I still burst into tears while reading my parts. My girl stared at me each time as if I'd grown another head. Do you know that scene when Harry hid behind the bush at the lake? Yeah. That scene. I swear I made the lake.

Teaching this way is definitely the best way.


The Other Reviews:

I read this as a buddy read, but really I wanted to compare the text to the movies more than anything. I've watched them so much and I've only read the series once through. (Now twice through this third book.)

So what do I think about this monstrosity of a series that gets so many hearts a-pumpin? About this book in particular?

I love it.

But how about this book in comparison to the film, you ask?

ALAS! I like the movie better.

What??? Blasphemy! Heretic!

No no no, give me a chance. I liked the fact that Hermione develops real stressed-out reasons for giving up the time-turner even if the reasons are still rather weak, all told, when taken in conjunction with all the other crap that happens in the series later. It'll always be one of those hedge-moments for me. BUT, putting that aside, the actual narrative events that happen in the book that I think are the best parts, namely the space of a certain 3-hour stretch, BOTH times, were much more fascinating and fleshed out in the movie.

Sorry! It's true! All the expressions and the little tidbits and quirks were more brilliant on the screen. And so was the penultimate event that always... ALWAYS brings tears to my eyes... the moment when Harry realizes that he was the one to bring out that awesome power to save himself. Even now I tear up when I think about it.

Yes, the book has it, but the build-up was just too quick in the text. The movie, however, did what movies are brilliant at... SHOWING us the enormity of the event. Sometimes it just takes the right media.

The movie is my favorite of the series. I'm reserving judgment as to whether the book is as well. (At least until I finish my re-read. :)

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