- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books; New Ed edition (12 July 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330345184
- ISBN-13: 978-0330345187
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.9 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 822,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for Diana Wynne Jones
’[Wynne Jones] has a unique record of producing books you can't forget… Every book is different. And every book is likely to be in someone's top seven… I feel we need to acknowledge how lucky those of us are who grew up on her books, and to ensure subsequent generations enjoy the same intense and subtle pleasure.’ The Guardian
“…Her hallmarks include laugh-aloud humour, plenty of magic and imaginative array of alternate worlds. Yet, at the same time, a great seriousness is present in all of her novels, a sense of urgency that links Jones’s most outrageous plots to her readers’ hopes and fears…” Publishers Weekly
“Truly magical – guaranteed to leave you gasping – even hotter than Potter” The Bookseller
“Diana Wynne Jones could teach Stephen King and JK Rowling a thing or two … [she] has a skill for inserting just the right amount of detail in her written words, leaving you satiated but not stuffed.” SFX
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.Product Description
Diana Wynne Jones at her finest – family feuds and chaos, magic with hilarious results and some of the most original ideas ever to appear between the covers of a book.
Casper, Johnny and Gwinny get a big shock when their mother marries the Ogre. The Ogre is large and stern and not at all interested in children, although this doesn't prevent him from adding his own two awful sons, Douglas and Malcolm, to the family mix. Now the five children and two adults are squashed under the same roof, which can lead to only one thing – war!
Then the Ogre brings home the Chemistry Sets – one for Malcolm and one for Johnny. Not that Johnny is impressed by this very obvious bribe. At least, not until they accidentally discover the flying lotion. Then the real fun begins…
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a book that makes you grin from ear to ear. On one level it is a story of breath-taking magic, of crunchy chemicals in glass tubes that can make you fly, or invisible, or swop bodies for the day with your posh Scottish step-brother, or make toffee-bars come to life and wrap themselves over warm radiators in the middle of a posh dinner party. On another it is about trying to squeeze two families into one and how you can't expect two sets of children to get on just because the adults happen to have fallen in love. This secondary theme is so apt for modern life, it is hard to remember that Dianne actually wrote this book back in the Eighties. It is funny, clever, magical and touching.
And it has as a central figure, Caspar, a character every bit as wonderful as Eric Chant. Caspar is wise and cool and ridiculous all at once, a child version of Bill Murray's Peter Venckman from Ghostbusters. Caspar steals every scene he's in and is one of those characters who you long to be real so that you could spend time with him.
A cracking read and one that is just as good if you are in your mid-thirties as it was when you were eleven.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Great Jerry Springer start there. There are far too many "issue" books for teenagers around. This book was written before that market was ever discovered, let alone exploited. A truly wonderful, bizarre, magical book which doesn't flinch from the step-parent subject but addresses it with humour, alchemy and ancient greek bikers. This writer needs more coverage. More recognition. More money.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was searching round the library for something to read, when I stumbled across a fantasy book - Howl's Moving Castle. It looked good, and seeing as I love fantasy, I decided to read it. It was one of the BEST books I have ever read! So I decided to read some others. I was a little reluctant to read "The Ogre Downstairs" because it is reasonably old, but I gave at a chance. I was hooked within the first page!!! Although I don't think it really is quite as good as Howl's Moving Castle, or Archer's Goon - it is WAY better than the magicians of caprona! It's a light-hearted story, and is easy to understand, it keeps your reading and is pretty unpredictable ( well, I suppose it is a little! )
Anyway, it has a good plot, has the "all essential" touch of humour - and is basically a great read! I would say it's for ages: 10 - 14
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A very entertaining book
I recently finished reading this as the bedtime story for my girls. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. As is usual for Dianne Wynne Jones it is extremely well written, funny and... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ms A. Breen
Love this book
I remember this book being read to us at school. My brother then bought it and I 'borrowed' it from him to read again as I had enjoyed it so much when I'd heard it. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Fletch
I remember this book as great
I remember this book as great and the pictures it left on my mind when I was a kid: the grumpy second husband, the cryptic references to greek and latin; but above all the name of... Read more
Published 6 months ago by D. Smith
Chemistry, magic and step families
I felt for the children whose otherwise loving and thoughtful parent had remarried without consulting her children beforehand. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Sally Swann
I like stories with magic in them
Caspar, Gwinny and Johnny's stepfather is so mean, they call him 'the Ogre'. And their stepbrothers, Malcolm and Douglas, are equally horrible. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Tnerual Rednaxela Eidorb
Magical chemistry
Two single parent families are forced together when the mother and father marry. The ogre of the title refers to the new stepfather who is unused to the presence of children in the... Read more
Published 18 months ago by H. M. Holt
Made me want a chemistry set!
I read this multiple times as a teenager and enjoyed every re-reading. I was completely convinced that I too would be able to recreate Malcolm and Johnny's experiments and I really... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Meechum
The Ogre Downstairs
As usual, Diana Wynne Jones' humour and imagination have created an fantastical take on a storyline of a second marriage. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2009 by Shas
The Ogre Downstairs
Although this predates Harry Potter, it still has lovely imaginative power. I have read this to classes of children, from 7-11 and they have all loved it. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2009 by Ms. M. C. Allen
Simply the best
I first read this when it came out in Puffin paperback about 30 years ago when I was 10. I now have children of my own. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2006 by A reader
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