Martin Bridge: Ready for Takeoff!

by Jessica Scott Kerrin, Joseph Kelly (Illustrator)

Overview

Meet Martin Bridge — a boy whose well-meant plans sometimes go awry. In three illustrated stories, Martin encounters two bus drivers with very different ways of relating, makes a tough decision about a friend's pet and takes on an extremely competitive model rocket project that almost costs him a friendship. The daily rhythms, struggles and triumphs of childhood — at home, at school and with friends — are evoked with warmth, understanding, honesty and humor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781553377726
Publisher:	Kids Can Press
Publication date:	03/15/2005
Series:	Martin Bridge Series
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	5.62(w) x 7.37(h) x 0.37(d)
Lexile:	540L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Jessica Scott Kerrin is the author of the bestselling Martin Bridge series, inspired by the misadventures of her husband and son. Her first novel, Martin Bridge: Ready for Takeoff! was named an ALA Notable Children's Book and placed on the Horn Book Fanfare List. Kerrin grew up on the Canadian prairies, but now lives with her family and pet tortoise in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Joseph Kelly is a commercial and industrial artist. He is illustrator of the Martin Bridge series of chapter books and A Paddling of Ducks. He lives in Sonoma, California.

Editorial Reviews

Young readers will readily identify with the likable, sympathetically drawn Martin and his crises of conscience when his well-intended actions go frustratingly awry.—Quill and Quire

The everyday worlds of school, home, and clubs offer Martin Bridge several opportunities for growth, and his responses are on target for a third grader.—School Library Journal

A pitch perfect chapter book that confronts its hero with three very real-world ethical dilemmas every elementary student will recognize.—School Library Journal

A warm, rich story for new chapter-book readers.—Horn Book, Starred Review

From the Publisher

Young readers will readily identify with the likable, sympathetically drawn Martin and his crises of conscience when his well-intended actions go frustratingly awry.

Quill and Quire

Aimed at "Horrible Harry" fans, but a cut above in content, these three domestic episodes weigh in with some unusually meaty insights. First, young Martin sees a special gift intended for someone else work a miraculous change in the disposition of his surly school bus driver; then, troubled by a neighbor's request to replace in secret her small daughter's dead hamster, he starts to wonder whether his own parents lie to him sometimes; and finally, feeling that he's not getting proper credit for suggesting that his friend Alex paint flames on a widely admired model rocket, Martin goes into a snit-but only until he figures out that a good friend is worth a little give and take. Pale ink-and-wash sketches on every spread nicely capture Martin's changing moods and close family relations. Fledgling chapter-book readers of a reflective bent will appreciate Kerrin's way of delivering life lessons without hammering them home. (Fiction. 8-10)

Kirkus Reviews