Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third installment of the Harry Potter series, and with this book Rowling's writing matures along with her characters. The first two novels were definately written for adolescents and this shows in Rowling's writing. The Dursley's abuse of Harry is overly exaggerated, and the differences between good and evil are extremely black and white. There are no gray areas in her first two novels. They can be enjoyable for adults, but they were definately written for young adults.

Then we move to the Prisoner novel and events and emotions become murkier: there are shadowy, gray areas now. Good and evil are not clearly defined as more complex and developed emotions start to emerge in this third novel. The relationship between Harry, Ron and Hermione becomes even more developed. They have some fallouts and some relationship struggles, but in the end, their friendship endures. Rowling's writing not only matures in this installment, but these kids are starting to mature too, and with it their relationship inevitably changes.

I love how Rowling plays on the strengths of all three of these characters. Harry relies on his strong friendship with Ron and Hermione - they are truly in everything together. I still contend that this friendship is one of the driving forces behind the success of the Harry Potter series.

Prisoner of Azkaban is the first of the Harry Potter novels where Voldemort isn't involved in the final fight scene. Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban, the wizard prison, and everyone believes he is out to murder Harry. For those of you who haven't read this novel yet, I will not divulge the ending here. I will just set up the background information and urge you to read the series for yourself.

Apparently, Sirius Black was involved in the betrayal and ultimate deaths of Lily and James Potter. After Voldemort kills the Potters, he attemped to kill Harry also. His spell backfired on him though, and Harry survived. He is after all, the boy who lived. This has made Harry famous throughout the wizarding world. There is much speculation on what really happened in the Potter home that evening. After Voldemort is "almost killed," Harry was whisked away by Hagrid and delivered to the Dursleys. Sirius is blamed for the betrayal and ends up killing another friend, Peter Pettigrew, and then Sirius winds up in Azkaban. For us muggles, Azkaban is the wizard prison. Sirius is very feared and hated throughout the wizarding world, and now he is on the loose.

What will happen? Unless you have been hibernating for the last several years, everyone knows that there are four more novels after this one. So suffice it to say, that at least Harry survives.

This is a must read! I mean, how on earth can you read the next four books without reading the first three? And, you really should ignore all the commercialism of the series and read it for pure fun and enjoyment. They are wonderful novels for children as well as adults: they bring out the children in us adults. Keep on reading!