Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling (2000)

I love having all of the sets of audio Harry Potter. It's fun to do while working mindless jobs. I can and have listened to them numerous times, so it's worthwhile to own. My teenage daughters also have listened to them while cleaning house and have enjoyed them very much.

This has added a new dimmension to the books. They have facts that are not covered in the book. Any Harry Potter fan would love it, these add to the experience. I bought becuase I had received some other books on tape and enjoyed them.

I have already read the book and wanted to get the tape to listen to when my eyes get tired and I still want to listen to the story. J. K. Rowling has a bright future in writing I think. Ha Ha

I bought this for my son who wanted to read the Harry Potter books, but had trouble with some of the words. This way he can hear the story and follow along with the book. He has enjoyed the tapes a lot.

I absolutely love the Harry Potter books. They offer all the things a good book needs, including action, adventure, good vs. evil, strong people and humor. Suspense is there along with a little romance, not too much! They are books that are good for all ages, although some parts might be scary for some. I don't buy in to the argument that the books are "evil" as some try to argue basing their argument off the Bible. I only see these stories as fantasy, not really the focus of being witches. They go along with the good vs. evil that is representative of the Bible, not against it. They do not mention God as a higher power, which I could take argument with if these books were written as a view on Christianity. But, I think the books are written for entertainment and fun, not as an essay for or against the use of witchcraft.

I would have to say that this book was a pivotal book not only in Harry Potter's life, but in JK Rowling's writing career as well.

For Harry, his past begins to reveal itself and danger comes ever closer to his reluctant sanctuary (ie-the Dursley's residence). For Rowling, her stories are no longer stand alone mysteries that share a common location, but are part of a larger story.

These changes are perfectly timed, as the 8th grade is a pivotal time. It is at this age that children are in between true childhood but not quite yet a young adult. We see changes in Harry, Hermione and Ron that indicate the change.

For one, Draco becomes less of an enemy and more like a pest-problems that they used to have no longer seem to matter, or at least not as much. The spells that Harry and his friends learn are likewise indicative of their maturity. Harry is learns to cast a protective patronus years ahead of his peers, which shows that he has matured beyond his peers. Harry takes his last, irrevocable step into adulthood when he choses to spare the life of his parent's betrayer so he can stand trial.

On the surface, Rowling does not "sanitize" the book as much as she did with the other two, a trend that continues with the rest of the series. Some people say that Prisoner was the last "children's" book and that Goblet of Fire begins her "young adult" books. While I agree with that assessment, I also think that JK was having her books grow up as her children did. We not only see character development in our heros, but in the writing style as well.

But her level of writing maturity does not end there. Each of the first two books had a beginning, middle and end. Each book was self contained. You could read Chamber of Secrets before Sorcerer's Stone and not miss much. Not so anymore. If you read any of the other books out of order, you could follow the plot but all the richness of her literary devices will not make sense to you.

I think what truely sets JK Rowling as a master story teller is that this book does not suffer from the "middle book funk". Too many book writers and movie produces use this excuse to cover their own laziness (sadly, too many people accept this excuse and keep wasting hard earned money on trash).

JK is able to produce a good book by following the same success formula that Marvel and DC comics did-have complete endings for the sub-plots so the readers feel satisfied. Rowling gives us plenty of satisfaction: the innocent escape death, the betrayer's cover is blown, Harry earns the respect of the people needs to rely on in later books and preparations are being made, at least by some, for the storm that they now know will come.

The greatest weakness I found was her assigning value and meaning to items from the first two books. When they were first written, these items were only described so much as to provide ambience. By retro-actively assigning significance to them, she created a feeling of artificialality that comes with forcing a plot device. This was corrected in later books and a much smoother flow will take place.

In short, Prisoner of Azkaban is a wonderfully writen transition book that takes Harry from being a child into adulthood and takes JK Rowling from being a great entertainer into a master storyteller.

John Holland-author of Necklace of Terrersylvanous

The audio book was exactly what I was looking for. I was able to replace a defective tape with a good one...