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

Ahhhh, this is more like it.

After the slight disappointment of my Chamber of Secrets reread, it has been very pleasing to feel myself back in the warm embrace of a long lost friend with The Prisoner of Azkaban.

From the first page, Rowling hooked me back into Harry's magical world.

She kept the recap of previous stories to a minimum and wove these bits into the story in a far more subtle and natural way (than she did in CoS).

I think one of the major differences with this book compared to the first two in the series, is that it no longer feels like we're adults reading a kids book. There is a darker edge creeping into this story.

Let's face it, those Dementor's and their soul-sucking habits are just plain freaky.

This is also a proper teenage coming-of-age story now in the making.
And typical of that 13-14 yr old experience is the desire to rebel against adult authority just as they discover that those same adults are not the all-knowing, all-wonderful figureheads of their childhood. Shades of grey, complexity and nuance begin to creep into the characterisations and story lines.

The reason these books work so well and win over the hearts and imaginations of children and adults alike is how safe they are. Behind all the scary You-Know-Who Voldemort stuff is a traditional boarding school story, where adults impart knowledge and the children learn to become socially accepted members of their community all wrapped in a heart-warming message about the power of love.

In scary times, the world turns to stories that make them feel better and help them to believe in a better world.

Hogwarts is such a world.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was the winner of the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year in 1999 (this prize is now called the Costa Book Award). As fas as I know, it was the only one of the Harry Potter series to win a major book award. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

If you have read The Prisoner of Azkaban recently and would like to leave the link to your review in the comments below, please do. I'd love to read your thoughts.

Amy's review @Lost in a Good Book which includes some fascinating fun facts.
#PotterBinge #XmasinSummer

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

There is often a heated debate about whether you like or loathe book five of the Harry Potter series. From memory, I really enjoyed The Order of the Phoenix.

For me, the one that makes me go 'meh' is this one.

To my mind, The Chamber of Secrets falls flat on it's face after the thrill and promise of The Philosopher's Stone.

The Chamber of Secrets annoys me from the get-go with it's lengthy recap of the first book.

It's the one thing I truly loathe about reading a series. I feel that the loyal readers of a series, in order, should be rewarded by the author launching straight into the new story. Anyone coming in late, should feel like they're missing out on something....and go back and read the books in order to find out what it all means!

But maybe it's just me?

The Chamber of Secrets feels a bit like a history lesson - we get the history of Hogwarts and Voldemorts back story as well. We learn a few more spells and charms like polyjuice potion. It feels like a set-up to get us to the rest of the stories - where the real action and drama will be.

If I'd been reading these books as they were published, I probably wouldn't have felt a huge anticipation about the next book.

The humour often felt contrived or forced,

Ron's old shooting star was often outstripped by passing butterflies.

But I did LOVE that a little bit of my story featured in this book. Really!

At the beginning of chapter ten Professor Lockhart has Harry helping him to act out his capture of a werewolf - officially named the Wagga Wagga werewolf.

Wagga Wagga is a large inland city in NSW. It was my home for four years whilst I attended uni (& co-incidentally, it's where I met Mr Books - be still my beating heart!)

Have you discovered the origins of any of the other names used by Rowling in her books?

I'm also re-watching the movies as I finish each book. Part of the fun is annoying my family with the "that wasn't in the book" or "they left this bit out" comments all the way through!
We all agreed that the Chamber of Secrets is not our favourite HP movie. The young actors were just at that awkward age when their acting abilities hadn't quite got there yet. Some of the scenes were over-acted and lacked subtlety, but maybe that was the Director's fault?

Don't get me wrong. I didn't hate this book.
I just didn't love it as much as the others.

Leave the URL for your review of The Chamber of Secrets below - I'd love to see what you think too.

Amy @Lost in a Good Book's review with fun facts is here.
This post is part of #PotterBinge and my #Xmas in Summer challenge

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

I will be rereading my Harry Potter books over the next few months or so as part of Andi's #PotterBinge.

There's not much that I can say about these books that hasn't already been said many, many times, so like Andi, and Katie before her, my posts for these rereads will be my random thoughts and observations.

I will avoid major plot spoilers as much as possible, but there will be references and allusions to certain events and character developments.

My first happy, happy joy moment occurred when I used this readalong to treat myself to a copy of the new fully illustrated (by Jim Kay) edition of The Philosopher's Stone.

Jim Kay has a fabulous website where he discusses how he came to create some of the pages.

For example, the sorting hat patches (below) came from a book of fabrics that Kay saw in the Royal Museum, Edinburgh years ago.

My understanding is that there will be a new fully illustrated hardback edition of each book over the next ten years (the last three books being split in half). I was also thrilled when I read the illustrator notes on the jacket sleeve to discover that Jim Kay was the person responsible for the amazing, eerie pictures in A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

My first 'WTF is that about' moment occurred when I realised that the UK/Australian edition of this book is called The Philosopher's Stone and the US edition is called The Sorcerer's Stone.

What's that about?

A philosopher and a sorcerer are very different character types?

The Philosopher's Stone (lapis philosophorum) is also a real, albeit, ancient and mythological symbol that has been the inspiration for writers, scientists and philosophers down through the ages. It has been linked to the likes of the biblical Adam, as well as Plato and Thomas Aquinas.

Does the word you choose to use change the meaning of the story?

At one point in the story, they discuss the real-world links to this ancient alchemy. What do they do in in The Sorcerer's Stone version at this point?

A sorcerer is a magician or wizard, although in medieval times the term was also used to describe someone who practised science in a laboratory.

Does the choice of word make one book appear more 'magic' and 'other-worldly' than the other?
Does this mean that the US version misses out on some of the delicious, tantalising 'could this be real' feeling?

Part of my love for Harry Potter is its 'world-within-a-world' set up.

All the references to real-world places and ideas such as the Philosopher's Stone make these stories feel plausible. There is a sense that if you could just find the right portal, you too, could enter Hogwarts.

I love how Rowling blurs the lines between our world and Hogwarts.
A simple boarding school, coming-of-age story about the power of love, captures our hearts and imagination because Rowling makes our mundane, everyday, real-world seem to be suddenly full of magical possibility.

Because I was curious about this change, I did a little research.

Most of the comments seemed to reflect the belief that American kids would find the word 'sorcerer' to be more fun. One reference alluded to a popular US drug of the 70's being called the philosopher's stone and concern that parents would not buy their children a book with this word in the title.

Several English words were also changed in the book - from clothes, food, common phrases and of course, words like mum, colour and favourite.

It has been reported that Rowling regrets agreeing to these changes, but I guess a debut author doesn't have much say in these things.

I wonder if these changes dilute the very Englishness that Rowling embedded the Hogwarts world in?

Are their any US bloggers who've read both versions of the book to see what, if any, impact the differences have?

On to other matters....

I enjoyed the foreshadowing that Rowling used throughout The Philosopher's Stone.

*The early mention of Sirius Black when Hagrid borrows his motorbike to bring baby Harry to the Dursleys.
*Hagrid's mention of Quirrell's year off  "ter get some first-hand experience" in the Dark Arts.
*Harry's dream on his first night at Hogwart's about Quirrell and his turban.

I was curious about Harry Potter Day.
What happens on this day? How is it celebrated/commemorated? When is it?

There were also many more tests to get through to the Philosopher's Stone than I remembered from my first read and the movie.

During the reread it is also obvious how these tests were designed to play to their individual strengths - which we had become familiar with throughout the book - Harry's flying/snitch catching abilities, Ron's chess skills and Hermione's logic and reasoning.

One could almost feel a little manipulated by Rowling at this point, except she cleverly suggests that it was, in fact, Dumbledore who devised these tests knowing full well that Harry would be the one to go through them.

I'd love to hear your thoughts as you reread these books too, so feel free to leave a link to your HP reviews in my comments below.

A big thank you to Andi for me giving me the excuse I needed to re-enter the world of Harry Potter.

For a review with lots of fun Potter facts check out Amy's posts @Lost in a Good Book.
#PotterBinge #XmasinSummer

Stories & Shout Outs #5

I've had a successful month finishing off all my half read books thanks to Andi's challenge to read #15in31.

I managed to finish 15 books, although a few of those books were picture books. The reviews for the Aussie books will pop up during November for AusReadingMonth.

I also joined in Blog Ahead during October.

I now have 10 scheduled posts and another nine draft posts for Brona's Books. Another four posts are scheduled for my photo/food blog - Four Seasons.

Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies recently shared an Ursula LeGuin poem in honour of her 13 yr old son's bar mitzvah.
The poem is so beautiful,
Please take the time to pop over and read it. You won't regret it, I promise.

Any excuse really.
I've been looking for a reason why to buy the gorgeous new illustrated hardback edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Andi @estella's revenge has just given me one.

The chance to reread the Harry Potter books over the Australian summer sounds like a lovely, lovely way to enjoy our long, hot days and nights.

I always associate HP with the summer months as my first binge reading of HP happened during the summer holidays of 2001/2002 after I saw the first movie at the cinema.

It was a hot, hot Sunday afternoon. I lived in a small country town at the time. The only cinema had only one theatrette. On show was this kids movie I'd never heard of called Harry Potter. I didn't care, I was hot and wanted to cool down in the air con.

I was instantly converted. A HP fan born in a couple of short, cool hours.

I left the theatre, walked across the road to the local bookshop and purchased my first Harry Potter book.

The next day I went back to buy the next three books.

A week later, I joined the rest of the world waiting, waiting, waiting for the next HP book to be released.

I will wait until AusReadingMonth is over, but I think that a #potterbinge will be just what I need after reading the Australian classic chunkster, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony.
Thanks Andi :-)