Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Book 3

By: J.K. Rowling

Narrated by: Jim Dale

Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go." 

When the Knight Bus crashes through the darkness and screeches to a halt in front of him, it's the start of another far-from-ordinary year at Hogwarts for Harry Potter. Sirius Black, escaped mass-murderer and follower of Lord Voldemort, is on the run - and they say he is coming after Harry. In his first ever Divination class, Professor Trelawney sees an omen of death in Harry's tea leaves.... But perhaps most terrifying of all are the Dementors patrolling the school grounds, with their soul-sucking kiss....

Having now become classics of our time, the Harry Potter audiobooks never fail to bring comfort and escapism to listeners of all ages. With its message of hope, belonging, and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new listeners. 

©1999 J.K. Rowling (P)1999 Listening Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic Reviews

"To call Dale a 'reader' of books is like saying Monet was a Sunday painter." (Los Angeles Times)

not a huge fan of the narrator.

good book, nice to go back and relive my childhood, but the reader pronounces Voldemort "voldemore" through out the book and it annoyed me greatly.

Narration can be irritating

I still wonder why Stphen Fry's narration of the series was not made available to US audiences. He is so much better. Dale's pronunciation of Harry's name by Hermione (Harreeeee) is so wrong. I don't care for his voicing of the female professors, either...they're all sputtering and sound like they've got a mouthful of jawbreakers.

Voldemort IS pronounced correctly!

To everyone complaining about how he pronounces Voldemort, please note that it is correct. The movies are incorrect, JK has stated this.

Otherwise, that is all this narrator does right. His voices are terrible, and they are constantly whining. Poor Hermione is the worst. HarrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeEEEEeeeeee!

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good

Story: The story continues... and gets even better! As I mentioned in my review of Chamber of Secrets, it becomes more and more clear how J.K. Rowling brilliantly created the world of Harry Potter. The characters continue to develop, new characters add to the story and the world continues to unfold in every book. The story seems to flow effortlessly from one book to the next. My favorite part of this particular book that was omitted from the movies and I didn't know about until now... The Marauders. I knew of the map, sure, but the amount of detail, backstory, everything about the Marauders added so much more to this book than I thought possible.

Performance: Gosh, once again the performance is stellar! I feel as though Jim Dale is really engaging with the characters and therefore is able to capture them quite well. I gave this a four star again because of this audio issue - the audio pauses for a few seconds making me think there is an error with the audiobook (starting to think I'm the only one with this issue). That said, the narration itself is performed wonderfully!

Overall: Seriously, how do these books get better and better?! One thing I failed to mention on the previous two books is just how much better the books are compared to the movies (but when is that not the case?). This is my first time reading / listening to this series, but still, I almost can't believe the amount of detail in the books that make them so much better and more enjoyable. Prisoner of Azkaban doesn't disappoint!

great book, ok audio

harry potter is of course wonderful. grew up teadi g these. the narration is good, minus the mispronounced words. like did the narrator never see an interview with j.k. rowling? obviosly its pronounced voldemort and not voldemore. and a few others. but its not to hard to get past those for the great listen.

Decent Listen

The narrator was bothersome with drawn out and mispronounced words. I didn't seem to hear this on the first two books. Still I enjoyed it and will listen to this book again. Maybe just a matter of taste in narrators.

Jim Dale at his best

I was so excited to hear that Audible got the rights to Harry Potter. My introduction to audio books began with Harry Potter. Jim Dale's voice and delivery brought to life characters that J. K. Rowling created on paper. Very few books have given me driveway moments, minutes spent listening to the end of a chapter, long after arriving home.
Thank you again to all for providing me an escape from the real world of muggles.

These books changed my life

we all know it's the best written, most creative, most enchanting spectacular world created in our minds by her writing skills. there is not a single complaint you can say besides it over. thank you jk for bringing my love of books out of me.

The best book

This is my favorite book of the series
But you won’t find a better narrator than Jim Dale
He is phenomenal truly.
Enjoy this book

Excellent!

My second favorite Harry Potter book so far. I am still enjoying the audio performance. Love how the reader creates all the character voices that you can tell who is talking. Reading/listening to book 4 next!