HP's 3rd year

AZKABAN is not really one of my favorites in the HP series, and the movie has a lot to do with it.  What I don't like about the book:

1.  The movie is least like the book.  I kept waiting for Harry to see Peter Pettigrew on the Marauder's Map and to ask Lupin how someone dead could be seen on the map.  Why'd they have to change that so thoroughly between the book and the movie?!  There's no need.  It works that that's how Lupin knew where Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Sirius, and Scabbers (Peter) were.  In the movie, Harry tells Lupin that he's seen Peter Pettigrew on the map, and it's AGES and AGES later before Lupin does something about it.  Lupin knows immediately that the map never lies which means that the whole deal with Sirius killing all those people had to have been a lie--and that Peter was the "bad guy," not Sirius.  Anyway, that just made that part really ridiculous.

2.  The way both Remus and Sirius are described when they change in the book is that they're both very large--huge, in fact.  The wimpy, walking on two-legs werewolf that is Lupin in the movie version is just so very ridiculous-looking that it ruined Lupin as a werewolf for me.  I mean, here's this GREAT guy who turns into this huge, scary creature and all I want to do when I see the movie version of him is to punch the guy who created the werewolf.  And Sirius is just the size of a large wolf, not even close to the gigantic size he's described as in the book.  So very disappointing.

3.  In the book, as long as they're at Hogwarts, especially, everyone always his/her school robes.  In the movie, only the teachers wear their robes, and sometimes even that's not true.  Snape is the only one in the movie who always seems to wear his robes--which is great for the bat-like effect he has.  But I like the idea of the school robes.  Americanizing the story or "Muggl-izing" the story by having the wizard kids (and adults in most cases) wear regular Muggle clothing is just ridiculous.  It completely takes away for the whole wizarding world for me.  That's part of what's so great about this series:  we're taken to a whole new world (kind of going over the rainbow, you know, or being in Middle Earth), but the director of the movie felt that we didn't need to be experience that world so he put everyone in Muggle clothing?!  Stupid director.

4.  Harry, Ron, and Hermoine, for more than half (close to two-thirds, maybe) of the book are fighting and not even talking to each other.  Harry and Ron do a lot without Hermoine and it just isn't right.  I get that young people fight/argue all the time, but best friends don't go MONTHS without making up.  That's just not right.  I guess that, ultimately, it solidifies their friendship even more, but for them to go as long as they did without making up just because of a few ridiculous things--Crookshanks looking like he's eaten Scabbers (good grief---it's a STUPID rat!  It just isn't feasible that even Ron would choose a dumb rat over one of his best friends) and then Hermoine getting Harry's Firebolt taken away (she was just worried about him---it shows she really cares---Harry and Ron should have seen that--how could they be so blinded by their desire to keep the Firebolt not to see that Hermoine did what she did because she truly cares about Harry?  So ridiculous!!!)

5.  And don't forget that neither Neville nor Ginny appears in this book very much at all!  I want more of

those two!!!!

What I love about the book:

1.  Hermoine punches Malfoy right in the face!!!!  Now, granted, I honestly like Malfoy.  I know he's a bully, but he's really a kid who just needs some attention and to know that he's special, too.  He's obviously very jealous of Harry and would like people to notice him, too.

2.  Harry is able to produce a full Patronus.  That's really awesome.  And he's only 13 in this one, so to be able to do that already shows that he's not such a weak wizard after all.  It's why, ultimately, he becomes the teacher for Dumbledore's Army.

3.  For just a few minutes, Harry has someone else he could live with instead of the Dursley's.  I, too, would have liked for Harry to be able to live with someone who truly cares about him and will do things with him and treat him as a son.  Of course, Sirius is just insane enough after being in Azkaban all those years, that he sees Harry as James a bit too much.  Not so much in this particular book, but we do see it more and more and the series goes until Sirius' death---and it's just plain creepy.

**Read:  June 2, 2012 to June 9, 2012
***Read again:  Sunday, February 10, 2013 to....Tuesday, February 19, 2013
****And again:  Tuesday, July 8, 2014 to Monday, July 14, 2014