Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

For how much I liked the movie, the book captured me even more. There are so many side stories that really do fill in the blanks and there are entire characters that were left out of the movies. Little things were changed like who said what and relationships are explained/explored a lot more. For example the book takes a lot longer to get Harry to the Village and Hermione isn't there. I also enjoyed the deeper relationship that is developed between Buckbeck and Hagrid. So much of the story line was condensed in the movie {which I didn't mind} but now reading the book after seeing the movie, well it's not a whole different story, but there is so much added to the story that keeps me going back. The book ended similar to the movie but the order of some of the events does change quite a bit.

A couple of things I really enjoyed from the book is that Sirius Black has much more of a presence and the his partnership with Crookshanks and Scabers is defined a lot more. It gives them more than just the honorable mention that it feels like in the movie. I like the beginning of the book better too, how Harry finds out about Sirius' escape, his birthday gifts from his friends and Aunt Marge. The pocket sneaker scope was a great addition and even though I knew how the storyline was going to be ever-all, it was one of those things left out of the movie that added a different twist to the underlying storyline of the book.

One thing that I think they could have played up more in the movie was just how much Draco really does despise Harry. It seems in this book more than the past ones, Draco has it out for Harry and wants to bring him down any way possible.

My only complaint is that I like the personality of Hermione better in the movie than the book. When we are first introduced to Hermione in the movies she is a bit of a know-it-all brat but her character softens up really fast. In the book she is still a bit of a whiny, bossy, know-it-all while Ron has a bit more smarts than the movie leads onto. He and Harry are the ones who come up with some of the clever ideas that it seems only Hermione can come to in the movies.

Overall, I thought the book was great and really enjoy reading all those parts left out of the movie. There was enough left out that reading the book {especially as the series goes on} is still really enjoyable and there is quite a bit left to the imagination.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

We are done with the Chamber of Secrets. Wow! Such a good book and just like the last one, there were a bunch of story lines that were left out.

One thing I always wondered about, while watching the movies, was if there could be such a thing as a muggle, from magical parents could there come kids who are not magical? Where there are so many characters in the movies who are involved through the whole series, there is even more going on in the books. Longbottom and XXX are more involved in the story line which is great. Many of the other friends are more involved and even have their own little sub stories going on. I have a feeling that Persley Wessley will play a lot more of a role in the books than he did in the movies and I'm excited to see what develops with him.

While reading, I am glad there is still a lot left to the imagination. This book helps to fill in the timeline for the full school year. In the movie, certain events seem to happen in a day or two, as they unfold in the book, there is so much more detail and events take time to unfold.

For the next book {they are getting longer} I will have to keep notes because there really are so many good things that I would like to share but by the time I finish and sit down to write my review, it seems to have all escaped. Trust me, my next review will be a bit more detailed...I guess the good news is that I haven't really put any spoilers in here. ;)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Paul and I have decided that this summer we would like to read the Harry Potter Series. My sister loves both the books and movies, she has read/watched them a number of times. So we thought we would read them and see what we were missing.

Am I glad we did. This first book was great. There were some things that I was surprised were not in the movie, others that would have given the movie a different feel but all together I really liked it. There were more students involved in the book, for instance, Neville plays a much bigger part, which I enjoyed but he was also a bit more of a wimp. It also seemed that Harry enjoyed his new found fame more when he went to Hogwarts and him and Ron were a more rough around the edges {all the fame had gone to their heads}.

The parts of the story that were left out of the film, due to time or creative license, were great. For example, the bit with Hagrid's dragon took on a whole story of it's own