ABANDONED. A teen book with a time-travel clock and a crazy scientist trying to turn boys into birds

[Ingrid]

Hi everyone,

I have been searching for ages for this book I read when I was around 10/12 (I am 36 now) and come to doubt it ever existed as I can't find it with the specifics I remember. Here is what remains in my mind:

It starts with a birthday party. I can't remember the name of the boy hero, but it is set is at his aunt place and she is called Marjory.
The kids play hide and seek and he hides in an old clock in the attic. The clock is cursed or something, and he falls asleep in it, only to wake up in 19th century London, in the house of a mad scientist / sorcerer who imprisons boys and feed them bird food and give them shots to make them fly. In the meantime one of the boys from 19th century London finds himself in the aunt's attic, they switched place. And we follow both the boy back in time, and the worried family after the kid's disappearance in the present time with a stranger hiding in the attic who they take for a junkie.

It was a fascinating story, very well written for a child's book. I remember the villain had a bird name, something like Sparrow or whatever.
I would love to buy this book for my niece, but cannot remember neither the title nor the author... and my searches online have turn nothing...

[Kris]

Ingrid, why does the mad scientist/sorcerer want the boys to fly? Do they start to look like birds in some way?

Note: Read around 1991-1994.

[Ingrid]

In fact I remember he has a formula or something that not really turns them into birds, but if they eat like birds and (not sure but I think) get a shot every day or some other measures, physical training? they develop bird faculties, so what he is really after is learning to fly. I think one of the boys manages to levitate at one point, which is horrible because he tortures them but "what if he was right"?

[Ingrid]

I think the boy was called Harry... but not sure...

[Ingrid]

Re-up, still hoping...

[Ingrid]

Up, still hoping, I search for this book every year, I can't seem to find anyone who read it...

[Kris]

Is this a horror novel?

Definitely London and not somewhere else in England/Britain?

Can you tell us more about the boy who travels from the past? Does he appear inside the grandfather clock in the attic?

[Chrissie]

Is it

...Sign of the Raven

...Time Sweep

...A Chance Child

...Earthfasts

...The Shadow Guests

...Tom's Midnight Garden

?

[Jess]

I think I've read this book! It was probably about 20 years ago, so I'm a bit sketchy on the details, but I remember the bit about a scientist trying to turn boys into birds, and the main character getting caught up in it.
I think the cover was blue/dark? And for some reason I have the word 'haven' stuck in my head, maybe it was part of the title?

[Rainbowheart]

Mr. Z and the Time Clock?

[Rosa]

It's certainly not Tom's Midnight Garden.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ingrid left the group. Moving to Abandoned.

[Rainbowheart]

Oh damn, this one sounded so interesting. :(

[Ayshe]

I think I found it accidentally now: Hiders and Seekers by Derek Denton. Only the Italian edition: I ragazzi volanti is currently on goodreads.

[Kris]

Now I'm curious. Here's the Google Translation of Ayshe's suggestion of I ragazzi volanti by Derek Denton:

Title: [The Flying Boys]
"When Harry decides to hide in the huge antique clock that his uncle keeps in the attic, he certainly has no idea what an incredible adventure awaits him. In a flash he is catapulted into the 18th century, prisoner of a cruel scientist who wants to use him as a guinea pig in the craziest of experiments: making humans fly like birds. But Harry isn't the only one who hid in the magical clock, and the story becomes increasingly dangerous and complicated, amidst astonishing twists, emotions and irony."

Here's another book cover on LibraryThing.com - https://www.librarything.com/work/331...