Book #28: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

I remember thinking that this book was one of the scariest books I had ever read when I read it for the first time (probably at the age of 10)--and it probably was, for that age. I look at it now, and it's not scary at all, knowing that Sirius is awesome and is Harry's godfather and surrogate parent in the next few books, but when you read the beginning of the book and hear all these terrible things about Sirius and Harry has all of his near-death experiences and moments with the dementors--man, it really is scary! This book really feels like it diverges from the children's series that it was in the first few books, to me. You really start to get a sense of the outside wizarding world, more than just Hogwarts and Diagon Alley (the Knight Bus? I love it!), and you learn a lot more of people's backgrounds in the book (including Harry's, his parents', and Snape's). I LOVE learning more backstory (especially to help explain Snape's outright hatred for Harry) and I love that Harry gets two father-figures in this book through Sirius and Lupin. I also love that so many of the things you learn in this book become super important later on.

This book is really the first precursor to the rest of the series, although it still is more of its own unit (since it's the only one in which Voldemort does not feature at all, and Sirius is the fearsome, far-off villain throughout most of it). My favorite moments in this book include: Harry blowing up Aunt Marge, the Knight Bus, Professor Lupin, the Marauder's Map, Hermione PUNCHING MALFOY (THANK YOU SO MUCH) and especially the freaking Time Turner at the end and saving Sirius and Buckbeak in one fell swoop. (Although, let's be honest, the Time Turner does kind of raise lots of questions--why doesn't anyone use the Time Turner to solve any other problems? Ever?)

Okay, there is so much to say and talk about with all of these books, I'm sure I could keep coming up with awesome moments and obvious pseudo flaws with the magic and plotting (a la the Time Turner) all day long. I'll just say that reading this again has helped to confirm that I really, seriously do love this series.