What do You think about The Ogre Downstairs (2015)?
I think this was one of the most fun 'kid gets his hands on magic toys' tale I have read. It reminded me of E. Nesbit's 'Five Children and It' but far less preachy feeling. This book was more like kids dealing with each other, (and being genuinely mean in their rivalry at first). It was interlining to watch their ways of cleaning up the chaos caused by the magic (imagine trying to pull your flying sister down from the ceiling with a mop!) and it was charming to see how they grew through the book from heartless rivals to genuinely caring for and protecting one another. Usually stories limit themselves to one thing, like invisibility or live toys, or switching bodies, or flying, but I found it pretty impressive that Diana was able to stick it all together in one book. Also, she makes a lot of it feel out of control and accidental and dangerously close to mishap, which is a nice change from all this books where the magic just conveniently works out just so...The main complaint I have with this book is the last amount of magic was never really explained. (I think Diana Wynne Jones likes to do this for some reason.) Otherwise I thought this was a pretty good book for the magic chemistry set primise.
—Katharine
The story of a gaggle of youngsters who can't stand their overbearing step-father and new step-brothers. They're given a chemistry set to bribe them into good behavior, but quickly discover that it can actually be used to make magic potions. The potions get them into ever more convoluted schemes and increasing amounts of trouble, until their dysfunctional household finally reaches a crisis point. This is a really charming story, filled with little touches of 1970s Britain that I found quaint and sweet. Each of the children has a distinct and memorable personality, and the uses to which they put their magic are both imaginative and relatable (who wouldn't make their dolls come to life?). I was truthfully a bit troubled by (view spoiler)[how easily the step-father's constant yelling and intermittent hitting were explained away, but I think this is a generational divide rather than a narrative misstep. (hide spoiler)]
—Wealhtheow
This riff on "Jack and the Beanstalk" is one of Diana Wynne Jones' best standalone fantasy titles. The twists come from the fact that the character of the giant (here nicknamed the Ogre) is "downstairs" and not up the sky as in the fairytale, and that it's the Ogre whose name is Jack and not the hero of the tale. All the DWJ features are there: the fun with words (the compounds in the magic chemistry sets have abbreviations similar to homeopathic rememdies), the sly Arthurian allusions (the most obvious being the girl Gwinny: Guinevere in British folklore was sometimes described as a giant's daughter) and, not least, the convoluted plot in a claustrophobic setting. What makes the story particularly attractive is the conflict resolutions that emerge from the initially strained sibling relationships, combined with the increasingly sympathetic description of the Ogre as an ordinary adult with human failings rather than the mere monster of one's nightmares. And, of course, anybody who's ever had a flying dream will recognise how it feels to be the Ogre's children and stepchildren in the opening chapters.
—Chris
