Question 2: Give your opinion of the book in about 150 words

I really liked reading this book. Of course this book is a bit childish, but the story is nice. “The prisoner of Askaban” is exciting and I think the story is very original. All of the Harry Potter books are read by children and adults. Nowadays there is a real “Harry Potter-hype”. I think this is because of the original way the stories are written. Harry has to deal with problems I have never read about before. Although it is a book for children, some parts of “The prisoner of Askaban” are very frightening. For example: Harry is chased by a mass murderer, who has escaped from Askaban (a prison for the worst criminals) and has also killed his parents. The language is in general not hard to understand, but the author of this book makes up a lot of words. She gives names to all kinds of self-invented animals. Sometimes this was a bit hard to understand, but while reading the book I got used to it.

Question 9: Explain the title by referring to the text

The main character of this book is Harry Potter. His parents were killed by Sirius Black when he was just a little boy. Sirius Black was arrested for this crime and he was sent to jail. This was the prison Azkaban, the best guarded and secured prison of the whole world. But then the day arrived Sirius Black escapes from Askaban. And what everybody expected happens: he starts chasing Harry.

So the title of this book is called after Sirius Black. During the whole story he is chasing Harry and everybody tries to avoid him from killing Harry.
I think “The prisoner of Azkaban” is a good title for the book. This title perfectly illustrates the main story of this book. If I had to think of another title for this story it would have been: “Sirius Black”. According to my opinion this is a very mysterious and “dark” name and I think it motivates people (children) to read this book.

Question 12: Could the story have really happened?

Of course this story could never really have happened. The story is about a little wizard boy, who is chased by a mass murderer. The assassin has escaped from a highly guarded prison and has magical powers. Harry goes to a school for little witches and wizards, and studies supernatural subjects. Every year Harry visits a town especially for wizards and witches. All of these things could not have actually occurred.
When Harry was young his parents were murdered. This is a thing that could really have happened. But the way they were murdered is impossible in our world, because his parents were killed by a curse.
At the end of the story Harry travels back in time and flies on a Hippogriff (a weird animal) to save the day. This is not possible either.

Question 26: Characterize the main character

Harry Potter is a highly unusual boy in many ways. He hates the summer holidays more then any other time of the year. For instance, he really wants to do his homework. And he also happens to be a wizard.
Harry is a very helpful boy, because he really wants to help his two friends Hermione and Ron in times of trouble.
A good, sometimes dangerous characteristic of Harry is his braveness. The moment he heard that Sirius Black has escaped from prison Harry decides to go after him. All of his teachers try to protect Harry from this murderer, but he wants to meet him to revenge his parents.
He also does not like arguments. When his two best friends are having a fight, Harry does everything to bring them back together.

Lastly he is a loving person. Because of the love for his parents he tries to find and kill Sirius Black and risks his life several times.

Question 46: Write your own blurb for the book

A new book in the Harry Potter series:

Harry Potter and the prisoner of Askaban

Finally the book we have all been waiting for is there!

J.K. Rowling has again delivered a magnificent, funny, frightening and unexpected piece of work.

"The Prisoner of Askaban is even better than its predecessor."
- Jack Nickelson, The Times –

"Everybody will love this book, whether they like it or not!"
- Eveline Karper, The Daily Telegraph -