Evans, Lissa

Fidge is hurled into a strange world with two unbelievably weird companions and his awful cousin Graham and between them they need to solve a series of nearly impossible clues in order to get back home again.

"When Noel Bostock--aged ten, no family--is evacuated from London to escape the Nazi bombardment, he lands in a suburb northwest of the city with Vera Sedge--a thirty-six-year-old widow drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it"--Jacket flap.

Moving away from everything familiar to live in a new house, ten-year-old Stuart Horten reluctantly befriends the annoying triplets next door and is swept up in a magical quest to find his great-uncle Tony, a famous magician who disappeared along with his fantastical workshop.

Ten-year-old Stuart, having become the junior curator of the museum exhibition showcasing his great-uncle Tony's long-lost magic, enters the magical world of the workshop once more to find Tony's will and is faced with a series of puzzles that become harder and harder to solve.

Ten-year-old Stuart is swept up in a Willy Wonka-like quest to find his great-uncle, a famous magician who literally disappeared off the face of the earth.