The interesting, illustrated bilingual stories in " Let's Read! " language-learning books are written for boys and girls who are independent readers in their own language. Titles in this series are available in both English-French and English-Spanish editions. While enjoying the original, varied, and exciting stories, young readers explore a second language, compare it with their own, and start out on a path toward fluency in their new language. Boys and girls soon discover that they don't need to learn every single new word that they encounter in the second language. As unfamiliar words reappear in the story's context, kids will pick up their meaning effortlessly, just as they pick up and understand new words in their own language. The parallel text, illustrations, and dialogue balloons on each page give kids a child-friendly bridge to reading and speaking in a second language. In this story, Tom and Sophie are traveling by car with their parents, on their way to visit Grandpa. It's a long trip, and to keep herself occupied, Sophie reads a book that recounts past cultures and events in many different lands. Tom pays no attention to her book. He'd rather stop somewhere along the highway and have lunch. When at last they arrive at Grandpa's house, they find him busy at work on one of his many inventions. But this invention is truly unusual. It's a miraculous time machine, capable of taking Tom and Sophie to a historic place she has been reading about.