From Publishers Weekly
"When five youngsters are given chemistry sets, the results are hilariously explosive," said PW. Ages 8-up. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Chemical Warfare?
Casper, Johnny, and Gwinny are sure they'll never be happy again when their mother marries Jack, who is as mean as an ogre. To make matters worse, two obnoxious stepbrothers, Malcolm and Douglas, move in as well. No one -- except the parents -- seems happy. But when Jack gives a chemistry set to each group of kids, bigger problems take over. These are, it turns out, not your average chemicals. In one hilarious experiment after another, the kids discover they can fly, switch bodies with one another, and even disappear. If only they could figure out how to undo all of this! Are one combustible stepfamily and two explosive chemistry sets a formula for disaster?
Card catalog description
When a disagreeable man with two boys marries a widow with three children, family adjustments are complicated by two magic chemistry sets which cause strange things to happen around the house.
About the Author
Diana Wynne Jones was raised in the village of Thaxted, in Essex, England. She has been a compulsive storyteller for as long as she can remember enjoying most ardently those tales dealing with witches, hobgoblins, and the like. Ms. Jones lives in Bristol, England, with her husband, a professor of English at Bristol University. They have three sons and two granddaughters. In Her Own Words..."I decided to be a writer at the age of eight, but I did not receive any encouragement in this ambition until thirty years later. I think this ambition was fired-or perhaps exacerbated is a better word-by early marginal contacts with the Great, when we were evacuated to the English Lakes during the war. The house we were in had belonged to Ruskin's secretary and had also been the home of the children in the books of Arthur Ransome. One day, finding I had no paper to draw on, I stole from the attic a stack of exquisite flower-drawings, almost certainly by Ruskin himself, and proceeded to rub them out. I was punished for this. Soon after, we children offended Arthur Ransome by making a noise on the shore beside his houseboat. He complained. So likewise did Beatrix Potter, who lived nearby. It struck me then that the Great were remarkably touchy and unpleasant (even if, in Ruskin's case, it was posthumous), and I thought I would like to be the same, without the unpleasantness."I started writing children's books when we moved to a village in Essex where there were almost no books. The main activities there were hand-weaving, hand-making pottery, and singing madrigals, for none of which I had either taste or talent. So, in intervals between trying to haunt the church and sitting on roofs hoping to learn to fly, I wrote enormous epic adventure stories which I read to my sisters instead of the real books we did not have. This writing was stopped, though, when it was decided I must be coached to go to University. A local philosopher was engaged to teach me Greek and philosophy in exchange for a dollhouse (my family never did things normally), and I eventually got a place at Oxford."At this stage, despite attending lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, I did not expect to be writing fantasy. But that was what I started to write when I was married and had children of my own. It was what they liked best. But small children do not allow you the use of your brain. They used to jump on my feet to stop me thinking. And I had not realized how much I needed to teach myself about writing. I took years to learn, and it was not until my youngest child began school that I was able to produce a book which a publisher did not send straight back."As soon as my books began to be published, they started coming true. Fantastic things that I thought I had made up keep happening to me. The most spectacular was Drowned Ammet. The first time I went on a boat after writing that book, an island grew up out of the sea and stranded us. This sort of thing, combined with the fact that I have a travel jinx, means that my life is never dull."Diana Wynne Jones is the author of many highly praised books for young readers, as well as three plays for children and a novel for adults. She lives in Bristol, England, with her husband, a professor of English at Bristol University. They have three sons.
The Ogre Downstairs ANNOTATION
When a disagreeable man with two boys marries a widow with three children, family adjustments are complicated by two magic chemistry sets which cause strange things to happen around the house.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Chemical Warfare?
Casper, Johnny, and Gwinny are sure they'll never be happy again when their mother marries Jack, who is as mean as an ogre. To make matters worse, two obnoxious stepbrothers, Malcolm and Douglas, move in as well. No one — except the parents — seems happy. But when Jack gives a chemistry set to each group of kids, bigger problems take over. These are, it turns out, not your average chemicals. In one hilarious experiment after another, the kids discover they can fly, switch bodies with one another, and even disappear. If only they could figure out how to undo all of this! Are one combustible stepfamily and two explosive chemistry sets a formula for disaster?
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
When five youngsters are given chemistry sets, the results are hilariously explosive. Ages 8-12. (Dec.)
Publishers Weekly
"When five youngsters are given chemistry sets, the results are hilariously explosive," said PW. Ages 8-up. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature - Wendy Glenn 0060298839
Caspar, Johnny, and Gwinny have a difficult time dealing with their new stepfather, the Ogre, and two stepbrothers, Malcolm and Douglas. The family is drawn together, however, when the Ogre gives both Johnny and Malcolm an individual chemistry set. The siblings informally compete to see who can develop the most bizarre results from the mixing and matching of the chemicals. The kids develop a potion for flying, for bringing inanimate objects to life, for swapping identities, and even for invisibility. On the night of a party held by the children's mother and the Ogre, an experiment goes awry. In trying to make things right, the children overflow the bathtub and cause the ceiling to fall in on the guests below. The Ogre responds by hitting Malcolm and Johnny, the two children most responsible. The mother subsequently leaves home to seek out an alternative place where she and the children can live. Gwinny and Johnny try to murder the Ogre, but come to their senses when they realize that the Ogre truly loves their mother and wishes for her to return. With some prodding, she does, and the family is united once again. The novel concludes with the discovery of a potion that turns metal to gold, the application of the potion to several otherwise worthless objects, and the acquisition of newfound wealth and a home large enough to accommodate the large family. Jones succeeds in creating a fantasy world based in reality; the chemistry set serves as a creative and effective means through which readers are allowed to imagine the impossible as possible. Although the plot events occasionally move abruptly from one to the next, kids should be able to follow the story. Despite the 1974 publication date,the novel remains up to date and worth reading. 2002 (orig. 1974), Greenwillow Books,
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