Family Adventure
A warm family adventure about the love that travels through time
In Nonna Marina's attic, behind a very old grandfather clock, Noah finds a door into every year that ever was. Together they ride a steam train along the sea, laugh in a castle, and arrive in a sunlit village in 1953 — where a barefoot girl selling lemons is wearing the very same gold locket.
Every page, illustration and narrated page is included — free, no signup.
PAGE 1 OF 10
Nonna Marina's kitchen always smelled of lemon cake and Sunday. “This locket,” she told Noah, “is older than me, which is very old indeed.” Noah leaned against her warm arm and looked at the tiny gold heart. It was smooth from a lifetime of being held.
PAGE 2 OF 10
In the attic, under a dust sheet, stood the tallest clock Noah had ever seen — with brass dials, glass tubes and gears shaped like little constellations. His star compass began to glow. “Oh,” whispered Nonna. “I always wondered if it still worked.”
PAGE 3 OF 10
The door swung open onto a street of marble columns and shouting spice sellers. Ancient Rome! Noah crouched over a mosaic of a dolphin while Nonna held his hand and laughed so hard she had to hold her glasses on. Somebody's cat followed them for three whole streets.
PAGE 4 OF 10
Next came a castle, a feast, and a knight's helmet three sizes too big. It slid straight down over Noah's eyes. “Very brave,” said the knight kindly. “Very blind,” said Nonna, wiping her eyes, and the whole hall laughed with them.
PAGE 5 OF 10
In Florence they found a room full of wooden wings and drawings of flying machines. Noah turned a propeller with one finger. “People imagined this before it was possible,” said Nonna softly. “That is how everything begins.”
PAGE 6 OF 10
Then a steam train, curling along a coastline the colour of glass. Noah stood safely inside the carriage with both feet on the wooden floor and both hands on the brass rail, watching the sea slide past the window. Nonna stood beside him holding her sun hat, and neither of them stopped smiling for eleven miles.
PAGE 7 OF 10
The last door opened onto a sleepy village square in 1953. A barefoot girl with dark plaits was selling lemons from a wooden crate — and around her neck hung a small gold heart-shaped locket. Noah looked up at Nonna. Nonna could not speak at all.
PAGE 8 OF 10
So Noah sat on a warm stone step and shared his lemon cake with a girl who would one day be his Nonna. She laughed exactly the way Nonna laughs. And Noah understood something enormous: grown-ups were children first, and they never quite stop.
PAGE 9 OF 10
Thunder rolled in and the machine's light began to flicker. Noah lifted his glowing star compass high. “This way, Nonna!” Nonna wrapped her cardigan around his shoulders, and they ran through the silver rain together, hand in hand, brave as anything.
PAGE 10 OF 10
Back in the kitchen the clock ticked as if nothing had happened. Nonna took out an old photograph of a barefoot girl holding lemons and held Noah very tight. “You see,” she said, “I have known you far longer than you think.”
The End
FAMILY VOICE NARRATION
You just heard one of our studio narrators. With Family Voice Narration, any family member can record a few short passages — Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Tata, Mimi or someone completely unique — and every future storybook can be read aloud in their own voice, even when they’re far away.
STORY LENGTH FORMATS
You’re reading the full Classic version of this book. The same story can be created as a quick Mini bedtime read, a printable Premium Storybook, or a Chapter Adventure for older children.
Preview Length
You’re reading the full Classic version
“Noah and Nonna Marina's Secret Time Machine” is shown above as a complete 10-page Classic story — every page, every illustration, free to read.
STORY LESSON SUMMARY
By meeting his Nonna as a barefoot girl selling lemons in 1953, Noah discovers that the grown-ups who care for him were once children too — and that family stories are a kind of inheritance.
PARENT DISCUSSION GUIDE
Every StoryStar Club book comes with a short guide so the story keeps working after the last page.
1. If you could visit any year of Nonna's or Grandad's life, which would you pick?
Turns the book into a real conversation with a real grandparent.
2. What object in our house has the longest story?
Makes family history tangible and personal.
3. What surprised you about Nonna when she was little?
Helps your child see grown-ups as full people with histories.
4. What story about today would you want to tell your grandchildren?
Builds perspective and a sense of their own story mattering.
Bedtime reflection: Ask your child: if you could visit any year of Nonna's or Grandad's life, which one would you choose — and what would you ask them?
STORY METADATA
STORY PLAN PREVIEW
You see the same plan for your own book — and nothing is created until you approve it.
Hero
Noah, 6 — with Nonna Marina, illustrated from a family photo
Story world
An attic clock that opens into every year that ever was
Lesson
Family connection across generations
Art style
Premium Storybook Watercolour
Length
12-page standard story
Extras
Audiobook · PDF · printed keepsake
Opening. A gold locket and a lemon cake in Nonna's kitchen.
Discovery. Behind the grandfather clock, a door into other years.
Journey. A steam train by the sea, a castle, a sunlit 1953 village.
Wobble. The way home flickers and the locket must be returned.
Resolution. Noah meets Nonna as a girl and understands the locket.
EXAMPLE PERSONALIZATION OPTIONS
This is a sample story. Your child’s version can include their real family — Mum, Dad, Nonna, Nonno, Grandma and Grandad — illustrated from optional photos in one unified art style.
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