Review ~ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowlings

Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: JK Rowlings
Copyright: 2000
Type: Young Adult
Hours: 11 hours 48 minutes
Series: 
Book 3 in the series

Reason for Listening:
Absolutely love this series and thought it would be fun to hear it in audio version.

Summary from Goodreads:
For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero, who's forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard "accidentally" causes the Dursleys' dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.

As it turns out, Harry isn't punished at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black--an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban--is on the loose. Not only that, but he's after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards hired to protect him, chill Harry's very heart when others are unaffected?

Thoughts/Opinions:
Jim Dale the man who narrates this novel does a fantastic job of not only remembering what each character sounds like but by keeping them all sorted and slightly different. I really enjoyed listening to this book. It brought back good memories for me and at the same time forced me to slow down and savor it. When I read it the first time I push through so fast that I hardly remembered the small details that were so greatly important later on.
I also enjoyed it because it half way brought back the movies to me and filled in the gaps that the movies left out...
Mr. Dale does a fantastic job with the pacing and keeping the story fresh. He never sounds tired or bored and I found his voice to be strangely hypnotic.
Great story (I am not going to review the actual story due to the fact SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE) however it was a fantastic 12 hours of sweet bliss to listen to. I found myself wanting to get back in the car to hear what would happen next.

My previous review of the books can be found here

Final Grade: 4 out of 5 stars

Would you Recommend this story: Yes it is an excellent series and the audio books do it complete justice.

Challenges
Audio Book Challenge
Out Do Yourself Challenge