Martin Bridge and his friends, Alex and Stuart, are big fans of Zip Rideout, a cartoon astronaut superhero. They eat Zip Rideout Space Flakes every morning and watch his television show every afternoon. They also enjoy launching model rockets, squirting Faster Blasters and humming Zip’s theme song. The trouble with Martin’s world is that these routine things often go wrong, or as Stuart would say, “Ka-boom!” Yet through it all, Martin discovers that he is so much more than his superhero.
Jessica created Martin Bridge after her husband, who was a leader of a boys’ troop, described their latest misadventure that involved exploding rockets. ‘Smithereens’ is the result of that story.
Other Martin Bridge stories were developed following Jessica’s travels and adventures that didn’t go according to plan, such as giving a gift to the wrong person; showing up for a birthday party on the wrong day; missing the bus for an important field trip; having a bicycle stolen; accidentally falling down a hole; or a pet parrot flying out the window in the middle of winter.
Everyday, all around her, things go wrong. Jessica has lots of Martin material to choose from. Over 140,000 books have sold to date.
Image used by permission of Kids Can Press. Text © 2008 Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrations © 2008 Joseph Kelly.
