Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Round 1)

    The book I am writing about this week is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling. It is about Harry Potter and his friends in their third year at Hogwarts, dealing with new classes and and a new Defense against the Dark Arts professor. There is also a mysterious criminal who has escaped from Azkaban named Sirius Black, who is expected to show up at Hogwarts. So far, I have read 143 pages of this book so far. I chose this book because I have been reading the Harry Potter series and I wanted to continue it. I think I will continue to read this book and write about it.

The main character of the story is Harry Potter. His parents were killed by the evil wizard Voldemort when he was two and he lives with his uncle and aunt, who hate him. He is kind, brave, and loyal to his friends. He is also very good at Quidditch, and plays on the Gryffindor quidditch team.

The antagonist of the story is Sirius Black, the escaped prisoner from Azkaban. Although Harry has not met him in person yet, he seems to be after Harry. Harry overhears the Weasleys talking about Black and how he wants Harry dead. Another possible antagonist could be the dementors, who are looking for Sirius Black, but make Harry faint. Harry is scared of these dementors.

One setting in the book is Hogwarts, a wizarding school. This is where Harry learns how to be a wizard and faces many enemies. At Hogwarts, there are many subjects that young witches and wizards learn, like Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Transfiguration, Charms, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination. There are also 4 houses of students, which compete for points. They are Gryffindor(Harry's house), Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Another setting in the book is the Dursley house, which is where Harry was forced to grow up. The Dursleys hate anything to do with magic, so they lock Harry's wizarding books away for the summer. They are always looking down on him and are embarrassed of him.

A conflict Harry faces at the beginning of the book is when Aunt Marge comes to visit the Dursleys. When they are eating dinner, Aunt Marge starts saying insulting things about Harry's parents, like that they are lazy and left Harry as a burden to the Dursleys. His anger unexpectedly causes Aunt Marge to blow up like a balloon and float. Uncle Vernon, horrified, gets angry at Harry, who is nervous because he is not allowed to do magic over the summer. He grabs his trunk, runs out of the house, and escapes the Dursleys.

I liked when Harry and his classmates were in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, with their new teacher, Professor Lupin. He tells them to turn their worst fears into something that they found funny. This part of the story was very entertaining to read, because I could imagine the Boggart transforming rapidly into these different figures.