Harry!!!

Due to multiple factors, I decided that this was the perfect time for me to re-read one of my favorite Harry Potter books: The Prisoner of Azkaban. Despite growing older, one thing never changes, and that is the love for this book. It is charming without being childish, spooky without being scary, and an all-around adventure from beginning to end. The Prisoner of Azkaban takes place in the middle of the story but goes back and explains a mysterious character that had haunted people since the first book – Sirius Black. This character is explained to be Harry’s godfather who has been stuck in prison for thirteen years for a crime that he didn’t commit. I have always found that, although this book fits in with the rest of the timeline, it almost has the feeling of a standalone. The story of Sirius Black covers backstory and delves into the story of Lily and James rather than telling the story of Harry. Like the rest of the books, it has a lot of clues about what is going to happen further on in the story. This characteristic is why I think these books could have some value as classroom books. I don’t necessarily believe they would make good books for a lot of classroom reading activities, but perhaps for book clubs in the upper elementary. Since I would guess that most students will know Harry Potter pretty well by the time they get to those grades, I think these books would be good for finding details and learning how to support predictions. Although they know what is going to happen, they can learn how to find clues in the book that support later events. For example, this book foreshadows how the Dementors will be used in later books. As well, I could see how visualization could be taught using this book. Like all fantasy books, it takes a good mind to be able to envision the world. Even with the movies, the students could still draw what they see the Dementors looking like based on the book description.

Overall, I would have this book in my classroom library, provided there are no really adamant protestations to this, and perhaps suggest it as a book to use in a book club in my class if I taught upper elementary. I believe it is a great learning tool and, since it is one of my favorite books, I would definitely be able to generate ideas for what to do with the story.

Here are some websites outlining activities for this book and other Harry Potter books:

http://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/1717

http://litplans.com/authors/J_K_Rowling.html

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/rowling.html