Halifax writer Jessica Scott Kerrin’s trio of interconnected short stories, Martin Bridge: Ready for Takeoff!, turns on daily ethical dilemmas faced by children. Young readers will readily identify with the likeable, sympathetically drawn Martin and his crises of conscience when his well-intended actions go frustratingly awry. In her first book, Kerrin has captured Martin’s inner turmoil with gently comic sentiment, but his characterization (like all those of his family and friends) remains generic, not sharp enough to be distinctive.

In “Faster Blaster,” Martin discovers that Ginny the hamster, whom he’s been feeding for his vacationing neighbours, has died. His parents promise to buy a replacement to fob off as Ginny to the neighbours’ young daughter. But this sets off Martin’s alarm – if his parents are willing to lie about Ginny, just what else have they been lying to him about? – and he vows to spill the beans. In “Smithereens,” Martin struggles to reconcile his competitive drive to build the best rocket with his impulse to aid his friend.

Though the stories are fluidly structured, they’re weakened by timid, predictable storytelling and conclusions that are heavy with life lessons. As is often the case in books targeting newly independent readers, too many of the splendidly nutty idiosyncrasies of character and language introduced to children in picture books are trimmed away for ease of reading. The result is Jell-O-bland prose that mutes Martin’s liveliness.

Joseph Kelly’s graphite and charcoal illustrations, which bring to mind the comically expressive minimalism of the Peanuts cartoons, depict Martin and his misadventures with energy and humour.