Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Askaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

By: J. K. Rowling

Summary and Evaluation by Allison

Summary:

The book "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is the third book in the series about Harry Potter. In this book, Harry is in his third year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Prisoner of Azkaban in this book is Sirius Black, who everyone believes is responsible for killing 13 muggles (non-wizards). They also believe he told Voldemort where Lilly and James Potter were hiding. Azkaban is a prison where evil wizards are jailed. At the beginning of the book, Sirius escapes from Azkaban.

At Hogwarts, there is a worry that Sirius will come after Harry. There are guards posted around the school. The guards are called Dementors, which are not human, and they feed off human souls and energy. The Dementors have a strange effect on Harry, which makes him blank out and hear his mother's dying words. Professor Lupin helps Harry create a Patroness to help fight off the effects of the Dementors. While all this is happening, Harry is training for the Quiddich cup championship at school.

Harry sees Crookshanks, the cat, wandering around with a big black dog during the night. It turns out that Sirius is an animongous, disguised as the big black dog. After many twists and turns in the story, Sirius ends up meeting Harry. Sirius is really not bad and it is Peter Pettigrew (the rat) that did all the bad things. Sirius and Harry become friends but Pettigrew gets away. Dumbledore, the head of the school, decides that Dementors will never be at the school again because they tried to attack two students. Of course, Harry's team also wins the Quiddich championship!

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'The Worst Birthday'

--- Before you start reading the book (and if you've read the previous book!) get the children to make a list of all the important things that happened in the first book that they think the reader will need to know in order to understand and enjoy the second book. Which information is the most important? Which information could the reader manage without? Make a checklist and tick off the information as you read through the second book and as J.K. Rowling mentions it. (GP)

Get the children to write an 'Introduction to Harry Potter' -> the intended audience is a person who hasn't read the first book and wants to understand what all the fuss is about before reading the second book. (GP)

p. 7 - 11 Turn the Durley's breakfast conversation into a playscript. (GP)

p. 10 Write the invitation that the Dursleys sent to the Mason's inviting them to a dinner party. You may like to include some of the details that the Dursleys mention on this page. (GP)

--- Chapter 1 is called 'The Worst Birthday'. Re-write the first chapter but instead of it being Harry's worst ever birthday turn it into his best ever birthday. What do you think he really wanted to happen on his birthday? What presents would he want? Who would he want to be there? How would he want the Dursleys to behave? (GP)

Chapter Two 'Dobby's Warning'

p. 15 Extract the information on page 15 that describe what Dobby looks like. Use this information as the starting point for a more detailed description of Dobby. Use your imagination to 'fill in the blanks'. Then draw (and label) a picture of Dobby to go along with your description. (GP)

p. 21 (top) Write what you think is in the letter that Uncle Vernon has received. (GP)

Chapter Three 'The Burrow'

p. 29 "...our she'd full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it and puts it back together again." What other enchanted muggle items might Mr. Weasley have? What spells might he have put on them? Write descriptions of the items and how the magic has changed them. (e.g. a vacuum cleaner that cleans up on its own) or The page mentions what happened when a magical tea set was accidentally

sold to a Muggle family. Write about what happened when another magical item was given to an unsuspecting non-wizard. (GP)

p. 29 Using the description on this page (and additional details later) draw a picture of Ron's house. Use material from this and the previous book to draw the Dursley's house. Compare the two places.