Can anyone help identify this book?

[OhWotIsItThisTime]

It’s children’s fiction. There’s a magic chemistry set and the kids can fly and it all goes a bit wrong when one goes invisible.

I loved it and want to buy it for me my kids, but can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called.

Google’s no help, as it keeps bringing up The Ogre Downstairs, but it’s not that. Please help!

The magic school bus?

@Food it was older than that. I have a really distinct memory of the kids flying over a city.

Thanks, though!

The Scott Corbett books? Starts with the lemonade trick?

Was it Five Children and It by E Nesbitt??

Not Scott C or Children and It, but thank you for your suggestions.

It was a family of children. Not that that’s useful!

The ogre downstairs
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ogre_Downstairs

My magical life by Zach King? One of the Professor Brainstawn (can't spell it) books?

If you don't get the answer try getting the thread moved over to 'What We're Reading' may get a result there.

It's not the lemonade trick by Scott Corbett is it? Early 70s was when it was written. I've not read it in years but it sounds familiar.

Ah sorry, I didn't realise The Lemonade Trick had already been mentioned above! Sorry OP.

I was s bookseller for several years and have used all the databases we would use and put this question out to bookseller friends... are you 100% sure it's not the ogre downstairs? It's the only thing coming back with everything you've remembered. The other books mentioned here are the only similar ones we can find.
We'll keep looking though!

It sounds like The Ogre Downstairs by Diane Wynn e Jones. Kids are given a chemistry set by their stepfather and have all sorts of adventures including flying. I don't remember the invisibility bit but that might have been one of the things that happened. I read it in the late 70s and I think it had juat been published.

@NaomiNagata can you point me to the resources you use if online?

There is a book I read in my teens that I have tried to identify several times with no success

Holy moly, I think it is the Ogre Downstairs! I loved Chrestomanci as a kid so this now all falls into place.

Naomi and Emma (and Dottie** for the suggestion), thank you so much! It’s a brilliant book.

I'd like to read that now! I love books. There's books from my childhood and teens I'd love to identify so am interested to hear of that resource for finding books too.

One that I'm sure was called The Strangers and was a bit sci-fi like, I read it twice and can still picture one of the scenes, and one about a group of children, possibly a ghost and it was by Ursula someone or a character was called Ursula.

Diana wynne Jones is an incredible writer and deserves to be better known.

Perverse it wasn’t by Ursula ale Guin, was it?

Stupid phone! Not ‘ale’, obv

The ogre downstairs!!!! One of my favourites. I just read it with my six year old and she loved it.

I literally just read it and it is 100% that book. It’s beautifully written and my daughter loved the characters. As it was written in the late 70s there are some things my kids just didn’t recognise - eg a key part of the book involves a tobacco pipe, which my children had never seen or heard of before!

Ursula le gain isn't familiar. The Ursula one was from the 80s. I read it at age 7 but was more for 9/10 years olds as I got it from 2 classes up. It was hard back and a white cover and I have a mental image of children at the top of some possibly stone steps inside a warehouse.

The Strangers/others book was from the 90s and was teenage fiction I think but possibly adult fiction. The scene I can remember is a beach one with a beach house and a man comes up off the beach to the door. I can't remember anything else about it unfortunately. Possibly a male author though.

Hello, not sure if this is the type of thing you're after, but I was a librarian for 20+ years (not children's, sadly - I'd have loved to have done that job!) and free sites I'd recommend when you're trying to track down books are:

• abebooks.co.uk - look at the forum, you can ask questions here as well
• booksforkeeps.co.uk/forum

If you're after out of print books generally, then amazon, abebooks and alibris are probably your best option. There's also www.bookfinder.com/, www.biblio.com/, www.betterworldbooks.com/, www.antiqbook.com/, www.ioba.org/pages/ (US focus), www.vialibri.net/index.php?pg=home, scribblemonger.com/ and occasionally things do turn up on ebay.

There are other big sellers as well, like Waterstones and Barnes and Noble that might be worth a look.

cannycat* that’s really useful- thank you!

Diana Wynne Jones is a bloody fantastic writer, she should be better known. I’ve read so many of her books but somehow not The Ogre Downstairs and now I feel jipped!

Thank you @cannycat20