/lit/ - Literature

Does any remember a YA or younger fantasy series about some orphaned street urchin kid (á la Aladdin) who finds a wizard or alchemist and becomes his apprentice? Takes place in Victorian England, or the fantasy equivalent iirc; I also remember that it seemed to love talking about salt peter.
I feel like I still have the first or third one in my house, but haven’t seen it yet. I’ll post if I manage to find it. Have no clue if it was genuinely good or not so I wanted to give it a reread.