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Roman Garstang Adventure #1
The Jam Doughnut That Ruined My Life
A jam-fuelled week of disaster is set in motion by a single doughnut. Roman Garstang is obsessed with food - particularly Squidgy Splodge raspberry-jam doughnuts - but he is about to learn that things are not always as sugar-coated as they might seem. Because of his Monday-morning jam doughnut, Roman's week takes a very sticky turn ...By Friday Roman has been banned from eating for 24hrs, narrowly avoided a faceful of warm toddler-wee, accidentally shoplifted, been given a lift in a getaway van, styled his teacher's guinea pig with a blue mohawk, started an OAP riot ...and still barely managed to scoff a crumb - or lick - of a single doughnut. Who knew jam could be so deadly?
- GenresChildrens
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2015
9 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Mark Lowery
31 books19 followersMark Lowery is the author of seven books for children and young adults, including "Charlie and Me - 421 Miles From Home" and the Roman Garstang Adventures.
Both of his first two books - "Socks Are Not Enough" and "Pants Are Everything" - were shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. "Socks Are Not Enough" was longlisted for the Branford Boase Award, and also won the Leeds Book of The Year Award and the Calderdale Book of the Year Award. "The Jam Doughnut That Ruined My Life" was shortlisted for the Children's Book Award.
He is a primary school teacher and lives near Cambridge with his young family.
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/hellomarklowery
Website:
www.marklowery.co.uk
Both of his first two books - "Socks Are Not Enough" and "Pants Are Everything" - were shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. "Socks Are Not Enough" was longlisted for the Branford Boase Award, and also won the Leeds Book of The Year Award and the Calderdale Book of the Year Award. "The Jam Doughnut That Ruined My Life" was shortlisted for the Children's Book Award.
He is a primary school teacher and lives near Cambridge with his young family.
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/hellomarklowery
Website:
www.marklowery.co.uk
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 9, 2015
i received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
funny story for me but my 10 years old daughter said that was funny just here and there.....
funny story for me but my 10 years old daughter said that was funny just here and there.....
May 3, 2019
It hurts to admit this, but my six-year-old dislikes reading; he's a very able reader, but he would rather do anything other than read. I try to encourage him to read aloud to me every night but he will always pick short books he loved when he was little, so I try to pick a more substantial chapter book to read to him.
'The Jam Doughnut That Ruined My Life' came as part of a series that I picked up a while ago. It entertained both of us: there were moments of hilarity - usually involving Gamble - but also moments of over-wordy confusion. I had to stop and explain to my son what was going on a couple of times because the narrative was drowning under too many gags. My son loved the guinea-pig nonsense and had Jane's motive for dating Roman sussed from the start. He's one cynical six-year-old.
'The Jam Doughnut That Ruined My Life' came as part of a series that I picked up a while ago. It entertained both of us: there were moments of hilarity - usually involving Gamble - but also moments of over-wordy confusion. I had to stop and explain to my son what was going on a couple of times because the narrative was drowning under too many gags. My son loved the guinea-pig nonsense and had Jane's motive for dating Roman sussed from the start. He's one cynical six-year-old.
September 3, 2015
I received a free copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley
Roman Garstang is having a strange and yet exciting week, full of mishaps and adventures, all caused by his beloved jam doughnuts. Unfortunately for him, his strange week has comes with an ever increasing amount of bad luck.
Mark Lowery has been nominated, and made it in to the short list for the ‘Road Dahl Funny Prize’, not once, but twice, with both of his previous books, and it’s easy to see why.
I love Roald Dahl’s books and after reading “The Jam Doughnut that Ruined my Life” with my 9 year old son, I can understand fully why Mark was nominated.
With quirkiness and laugh out load moments throughout, including searching for the teacher’s Guinea pig, who is sporting a Mohawk, to getting himself a new girlfriend, Jane, who turns out to be a ‘doughnut digger’, Roman is having an unexpected week of weird events.
Roman is a wonderfully written and portrayed character, but it’s secondary characters that really bring the story alive, both young and old, including weeing babies and his dopey parents.
I’m not sure who laughed the most, my son or me, but at times we were both crying with laughter and had ‘rib ache’.
The story is unique and grabs your attention. It keeps you entertained from the first page to the very last. I also loved the fantastic, colourful cover, which really grabbed both of our attention.
My son, since finished reading this book, asked me to get him Mark’s other books. To me this is a testament to just how good the book is.
A fantastic story which I’m sure that kids will love, and mums and dads will enjoy reading to their children.
www.whisperingstories.com
Roman Garstang is having a strange and yet exciting week, full of mishaps and adventures, all caused by his beloved jam doughnuts. Unfortunately for him, his strange week has comes with an ever increasing amount of bad luck.
Mark Lowery has been nominated, and made it in to the short list for the ‘Road Dahl Funny Prize’, not once, but twice, with both of his previous books, and it’s easy to see why.
I love Roald Dahl’s books and after reading “The Jam Doughnut that Ruined my Life” with my 9 year old son, I can understand fully why Mark was nominated.
With quirkiness and laugh out load moments throughout, including searching for the teacher’s Guinea pig, who is sporting a Mohawk, to getting himself a new girlfriend, Jane, who turns out to be a ‘doughnut digger’, Roman is having an unexpected week of weird events.
Roman is a wonderfully written and portrayed character, but it’s secondary characters that really bring the story alive, both young and old, including weeing babies and his dopey parents.
I’m not sure who laughed the most, my son or me, but at times we were both crying with laughter and had ‘rib ache’.
The story is unique and grabs your attention. It keeps you entertained from the first page to the very last. I also loved the fantastic, colourful cover, which really grabbed both of our attention.
My son, since finished reading this book, asked me to get him Mark’s other books. To me this is a testament to just how good the book is.
A fantastic story which I’m sure that kids will love, and mums and dads will enjoy reading to their children.
www.whisperingstories.com
November 16, 2024
Are you a 12-year-old boy? Do you laugh at things a 12-year-old boy would laugh at? If you answered yes to either of these questions, this book is for you.
Roman Garstang’s love of doughnuts (EXCEPT LEMON ONES) gets him into trouble at school. He gets a girlfriend and a crazy new best mate, accidentally ruins his teacher’s prize-winning guinea pig, commits a little crime, and incites a senior citizen riot.
Roman Garstang’s love of doughnuts (EXCEPT LEMON ONES) gets him into trouble at school. He gets a girlfriend and a crazy new best mate, accidentally ruins his teacher’s prize-winning guinea pig, commits a little crime, and incites a senior citizen riot.
May 30, 2018
oman loves and lives on doughnuts. When he has a doughnut on a trip to the aquarium he suddenly finds himself with a girlfriend after she wants some of his doughnut, a running theme in the book!
It also gets him into trouble with his guinea pig obsessed teacher after her prize piggie starts to pig out on his doughnuts! Hee also gets caught up in a robbery, accidentally shoplifting and trouble with old people in a care home demanding doughnuts!
Set over a week in his life, we learn how the doughnut gets him into crazy situations, gains him a best friend, gains and loses him a girlfriend and teaches him a lot about his love of doughnuts as he craves them throughout but seemingly can't have any!
It made me laugh so many times, all the characters were quirky and each one had something distinctive about them to remember and define them, a super book!
It also gets him into trouble with his guinea pig obsessed teacher after her prize piggie starts to pig out on his doughnuts! Hee also gets caught up in a robbery, accidentally shoplifting and trouble with old people in a care home demanding doughnuts!
Set over a week in his life, we learn how the doughnut gets him into crazy situations, gains him a best friend, gains and loses him a girlfriend and teaches him a lot about his love of doughnuts as he craves them throughout but seemingly can't have any!
It made me laugh so many times, all the characters were quirky and each one had something distinctive about them to remember and define them, a super book!
October 28, 2019
Like Roald Dahl ... you'll like this one!
It is one of those funny books that will appeal to a variety of ages…8-13 to adult, both boys and girls. What is wrong with liking jam doughnuts? … well … sometimes one thing just leads to another!
Fun characterisation, the “good girl” girlfriend who is really just a “doughnut digger”, the difficult class character who wasn’t always as he appeared, and as for the teaching staff…
Very zany, farcical, fast paced. As an adult it won’t take you long as a bedtime read, so try and it as an alternative to Roald Dahl … and if you enjoy it the good news is that there are more like Roman Garstang adventures (disasters) for your class to discover.
It is one of those funny books that will appeal to a variety of ages…8-13 to adult, both boys and girls. What is wrong with liking jam doughnuts? … well … sometimes one thing just leads to another!
Fun characterisation, the “good girl” girlfriend who is really just a “doughnut digger”, the difficult class character who wasn’t always as he appeared, and as for the teaching staff…
Very zany, farcical, fast paced. As an adult it won’t take you long as a bedtime read, so try and it as an alternative to Roald Dahl … and if you enjoy it the good news is that there are more like Roman Garstang adventures (disasters) for your class to discover.
June 23, 2025
Thomas 8P- I liked some people giving out the doughnuts.
Alex 8P- I liked the school trip.
Skye 7P- I really liked it because it's so chaotic because a boy has managed to set a world record for the things that happen to him in a week.
Riley 7P- I liked the humor of the book because it's just so stupid that its funny.
Leo 7P- I liked all of the parts of this book.
Harry 8P- I liked it.
Alex 8P- I liked the school trip.
Skye 7P- I really liked it because it's so chaotic because a boy has managed to set a world record for the things that happen to him in a week.
Riley 7P- I liked the humor of the book because it's just so stupid that its funny.
Leo 7P- I liked all of the parts of this book.
Harry 8P- I liked it.
June 24, 2017
I've been reading this to my 9 year old son before bed and I don't know who's enjoyed it the most- me or him? Fast paced, with gross out, side-splitting humor. I'm dying to read the second in the series.
- Danny
- Danny
January 28, 2018
A 3 from one child, a 5 from the other so a 4 from us. Very funny so we're looking forward to picking up the next of Roman's adventures...
August 5, 2018
I didn’t enjoy it but neither did my mum
January 28, 2019
Funny and want to read more!
June 22, 2019
This book is hilarious! I read this book to and from school and it gave me the giggles whenever I read it. I really recommend reading this fantastic book.
May 25, 2020
So Funny - we all love Darren Gamble!!
We’re big fans of these books in our family. Hilarious and entertaining, a great read for kids 6+ and adults alike.
Please write more!
We’re big fans of these books in our family. Hilarious and entertaining, a great read for kids 6+ and adults alike.
Please write more!
March 11, 2024
Hilarious... It literally ruins his life!
July 23, 2015
The Jam Doughnut That Brightened My Day
It is now entirely clear to me why Mark Lowery has already been shortlisted, twice, for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. This book succeeds across the board in a very tricky category.
The start was not auspicious. Our hero, Roman, is nuts about jam doughnuts and the first few pages of the book make that point over and over again, in a decreasingly amusing fashion. I thought this was going to be a one joke book and that the joke would rapidly wear thin. Well, I'm obviously an idiot. Luckily, I soldiered on, and very shortly tthe book took off and never slowed down.
This is a school daze story that follows our hapless hero through an unending series of increasingly bizarre mishaps, each more outrageous and funny than the last. The thing about such books is that the mayhem has to be very carefully paced and the hero has to hold our sympathy or the whole enterprise collapses as a cacophonous mess. This is where Lowery is just brilliant.
First off, Roman has a great voice. He is just dry and deadpan enough to hold the narrative together. As the action becomes more and more manic, Roman becomes more resigned to his horrible fate as the butt of both outrageous bad luck and sweet good fortune. Like some middle grade Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton he just keeps striving with a straight face and a good heart as life hits him in the face with pie after pie, (or, literally, doughnut after doughnut).
This works so well in part because of the tremendous cast of funny/interesting/loony supporting characters, many of whom are slyly twisted by the author to confound our expectations. (MILD SPOILERS ABOUT CHARACTERS.) The dream girl turns out to be a gold/doughnut digger. The insane class troublemaker is an appealing innocent and not a bad mate. Mom and Dad have some of the best lines, even if they are a bit clueless. The unrelentingly mean mean girl has a backstory. All of the teachers are burned out, hyper, delusional, psychopaths, or some combination of the four.
The action is unrelievedly manic. Something happens on every page. Roman cannot, ever, catch a break and the book screams along at a breathless pace with a new complication or doughnut related misadventure appearing every few pages. Farce is insanely difficult to act and almost impossible to write, and the fact that Lowery has done it so well in a middle grade humor book is remarkable.
It helps that there is a wide range, (I'm thinking of age, reading level and sophistication), of humor here. There is obvious fart, throwup, wee throwing and jammy pockets humor for younger readers, but then some very sly throwaway lines about teachers, adults and Roman's circumstances for older readers. For readers who like such things, there are a lot of positive messages in here for young readers, and truth and virtue do end up counting for something.
The upshot, for me, is that I finished this book not only with the feeling that it would be a great middle grade read, and not only with an appreciation for the writer's skill, but also with a smile and a chuckle because it amused me. I don't see how I could ask for more than that.
Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book's ARC. Apart from that I have no connection to either the author or the publisher of the book.
It is now entirely clear to me why Mark Lowery has already been shortlisted, twice, for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. This book succeeds across the board in a very tricky category.
The start was not auspicious. Our hero, Roman, is nuts about jam doughnuts and the first few pages of the book make that point over and over again, in a decreasingly amusing fashion. I thought this was going to be a one joke book and that the joke would rapidly wear thin. Well, I'm obviously an idiot. Luckily, I soldiered on, and very shortly tthe book took off and never slowed down.
This is a school daze story that follows our hapless hero through an unending series of increasingly bizarre mishaps, each more outrageous and funny than the last. The thing about such books is that the mayhem has to be very carefully paced and the hero has to hold our sympathy or the whole enterprise collapses as a cacophonous mess. This is where Lowery is just brilliant.
First off, Roman has a great voice. He is just dry and deadpan enough to hold the narrative together. As the action becomes more and more manic, Roman becomes more resigned to his horrible fate as the butt of both outrageous bad luck and sweet good fortune. Like some middle grade Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton he just keeps striving with a straight face and a good heart as life hits him in the face with pie after pie, (or, literally, doughnut after doughnut).
This works so well in part because of the tremendous cast of funny/interesting/loony supporting characters, many of whom are slyly twisted by the author to confound our expectations. (MILD SPOILERS ABOUT CHARACTERS.) The dream girl turns out to be a gold/doughnut digger. The insane class troublemaker is an appealing innocent and not a bad mate. Mom and Dad have some of the best lines, even if they are a bit clueless. The unrelentingly mean mean girl has a backstory. All of the teachers are burned out, hyper, delusional, psychopaths, or some combination of the four.
The action is unrelievedly manic. Something happens on every page. Roman cannot, ever, catch a break and the book screams along at a breathless pace with a new complication or doughnut related misadventure appearing every few pages. Farce is insanely difficult to act and almost impossible to write, and the fact that Lowery has done it so well in a middle grade humor book is remarkable.
It helps that there is a wide range, (I'm thinking of age, reading level and sophistication), of humor here. There is obvious fart, throwup, wee throwing and jammy pockets humor for younger readers, but then some very sly throwaway lines about teachers, adults and Roman's circumstances for older readers. For readers who like such things, there are a lot of positive messages in here for young readers, and truth and virtue do end up counting for something.
The upshot, for me, is that I finished this book not only with the feeling that it would be a great middle grade read, and not only with an appreciation for the writer's skill, but also with a smile and a chuckle because it amused me. I don't see how I could ask for more than that.
Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book's ARC. Apart from that I have no connection to either the author or the publisher of the book.
March 2, 2016
An insane and funny read about a problematic treat! That was despite the protagonist being a boy. The concept from the book's summary made me laugh, and Roman's magnetism for danger all thanks to a donut (I prefer this spelling to the title spelling) was believably unbelievable. Yes that does make sense. The plot twists are incredible, and so absurd that they could only feel realistic. I felt sorry for him, and all those who are associated with him, but he does do good in his own way.
A few parts grossed me out, hence the almost perfect grade, but on the whole I was gripped by the hilarious tale. Stories where characters encounter disaster after disaster is always entertaining, and it didn't matter that I couldn't pretend to be Roman. I've had days where things just happen, thankfully not on the scale that Roman suffers, so I was able to connect to him that way. I hope there will be more Roman books!
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review on my blog Nayu's Reading Corner http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.co...
A few parts grossed me out, hence the almost perfect grade, but on the whole I was gripped by the hilarious tale. Stories where characters encounter disaster after disaster is always entertaining, and it didn't matter that I couldn't pretend to be Roman. I've had days where things just happen, thankfully not on the scale that Roman suffers, so I was able to connect to him that way. I hope there will be more Roman books!
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review on my blog Nayu's Reading Corner http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.co...
November 8, 2024
This book is about Roman, who ends up having a disastrous week set in motion by a single jam doughnut. It was such a hilarious story, and can very easily be read in a day. Roman, just like Michael in Socks Are Not Enough, could not catch a break from chaos and it was all so funny- I laughed out loud loads. It’s crazy how just 1 doughnut caused so many problems!!! My favourite character was Darren and what he did at the end was so sweet. Jane’s motive for being Roman’s girlfriend was absolutely hilarious! I look forward to reading the rest of the series and I hope they continue to be as funny.
March 15, 2016
It was good... Not as good as Mark Lowery's other books. There are some brilliantly hilarious bits of text, but I found the general story a bit lack luster. I think perhaps, because the main 'weirdo' 'bad' kid was portrayed as into heavy metal, kind of annoyed me; I get very fed up of using cliched dated stereotypes. I really wanted the main character to just get a grip and stick up for himself.
Very very funny writing, even if the story is lacking in places.
Very very funny writing, even if the story is lacking in places.
January 31, 2016
This book was very funny and who would have thought that a book could be about one deadly jam doughnut!! My favourite part was when Jane tells Roman to bring in about 50 doughnuts! I absolutely loved this book and would recommend this book to everyone! You would love this book if you're wanting to laugh!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2016
My ten year old found it humorous, but not laugh out loud hilarious. A very easy read, with an interesting, different plot.
Suitable for advanced readers from 8+
Suitable for advanced readers from 8+
March 22, 2016
Very funny and crazily chaotic. Roman just wants a donut but it certainly doesn't go to plan.
Well written and funny, my 8 year old enjoyed this book very much.
Well written and funny, my 8 year old enjoyed this book very much.
April 4, 2022
Very enjoyable book that had my daughter and I laughing throughout! It also encourages her to finish it off by herself as she is a very reluctant reader. Highly recommend for kids aged 6+
April 20, 2020
I liked this book because it was really funny. Me and my brother could not stop laughing. :)
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews