Customer Reviews
Simply the best - By: A reader, 07 Nov 2006 
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. I came across the book & started reading it again, & you know what, it's still as great - & as modern - as it was then. I remembered laughing out loud when I read it the first time & I still laughed when I read it again. Believe me, there are not many books that can do that. Yet this is a great adventure story. The characters are so well-drawn I can't fault them, alll with their own little ways; & as for the experiments, fantastic! I love reading, but this book is still one of the best. Everyone should read it. It's a gem.
the best book i've ever read - By: Ms. R. Burns, 12 Feb 2006 This book is loads of adventures in one. Life wasn't the same when i finished it.I've never enjoyed a book so much. There are lots of ideas i would have never thought of.
This book is funny & has lots of action. I wasn't into reading at the time but I was swalllowed up by this book (not literallly).
I think you should buy it.
Toffee bars and the Great Caspar - By: Andrew Pack, 06 Feb 2004 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 & 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 & how you can't expect two sets of children to get on just because the adults happen to have falllen in love. This secondary theme is so apt for modern life, it is hard to remember that Dianne actuallly wrote this book back in the Eighties. It is funny, clever, magical & touching.
And it has as a central figure, Caspar, a character every bit as wonderful as Eric Chant. Caspar is wise & cool & ridiculous alll at once, a child version of Bill Murray's Peter Venckman from Ghostbusters. Caspar steals every scene he's in & is one of those characters who you long to be real so that you could spend time with him.
A cracking read & one that is just as good if you are in your mid-thirties as it was when you were eleven.
a childs view of being part of a new step family - By: , 21 Feb 2002 
I actuallly read this book at school & it has always left an impression on me & through talking about favorite books at work this was the one that I talked about its were a family get a new step dad & his kids & a chemisty set & by accident make some little toy figures come to life although I cant remember the ending I am just about to re-read this again as an adult & know that my son will enjoy it as much as I will, you read many things in life but only a few that leave such a good impression & being enjoyable & this book is one of them
My stepfather and I are now best friends!!! - By: , 12 Aug 2001 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 & ancient greek bikers. This writer needs more coverage. More recognition. More money.
