Monday, 9 April 2012

J. K. ROWLING (1999), Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury
By Antonio Munar Frau, 2º Bachillerato EFL                                           
This is the third book of the Harry Potter saga. Harry Potter is spending his holidays with the Dursleys and they receive the visit of Aunt Marge. She starts insulting his parents, so Harry makes a spell, breaking the law against practicing magic outside Howarts. He knows he is in trouble, but when he meets   the Minister of magic, he doesn’t say anything to Harry, so Harry starts suspecting there’s something strange and he finally discovers it: Sirius Black, a dangerous wizard has escaped from Azkaban, the magic prison where it’s impossible to escape from. This wizard is looking for Harry to kill him. The Ministry of Magic has ordered the dementhors to guard the school and all the magic places, in order to catch Sirius Black and protect the Wizards and witches. But these creatures appear around Harry many times and they make him feel awful and upset, so much that he faints.
In the third year of School, students are allowed to visit Hogsmade, a village full of little shops of all kind of objects and curiosities. But the Dursley didn’t sign the authorization, so Harry can’t go there. Ron’s brothers find him a map of the passages that conduct directly to Hogsmade, and Harry uses it to visit the village, where he discovers that Sirius is his godfather and that it was he was who betrayed his parents. However, when Harry, Ron and Hermione investigate Sirius they discover...
Secrets are the main theme of this story. Harry’s life is surrounded by secrets. Because of his age, his professors and fiends don’t say anything to him. Sometimes hiding a secret is worse than telling it. Harry, Ron and Hermione find out that things aren’t what they seem. Thanks to them, Sirius Black can escape from death and many things are clarified. To tell or not to tell something, even a small detail, can change a situation completely. For example, if Harry and his friends hadn’t gone to the Shrieking Shack, their professors wouldn’t have told them the truth and Pettigrew wouldn’t have been punished. There can be lots of misunderstandings because of not telling something to a fiend; maybe we think everything is clear and we don’t have to explain anything because it’s obvious, but it isn’t. We have to keep alert about the secrets we hide and the things we tell and be aware of the consequences of our decisions.

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