For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero,
who's forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K.
Rowling's Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard "accidentally" causes the Dursleys'
dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing
punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges
out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.
As it turns out, Harry isn't punished
at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked
off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn
called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why
the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black--an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban--is
on the loose. Not only that, but he's after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards
hired to protect him, chill Harry's very heart when others are unaffected? Once again, Rowling has created
a mystery that will have children and adults cheering, not to mention standing in line for her next book.
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