The Book - A time traveling device shaped like a book featured on the education cartoon series TIME WARP TRIO/DSK/NBC/2005. "The Book" is the property of Joe, a 10-year-old boy who lives in Brooklyn, New York with his family which consists of his mom, his dad his sister, Anna,  his Uncle "Mad" Jack, and his brother, Uncle Joe, an eccentric magician. It was Uncle Joe who changed Joe's life forever, when he appeared at the front door of Joe's brownstone house and gave Joe a birthday present wrapped in brown paper and a red ribbon.

After Uncle Joe magically disappeared on his doorstep, Joe ran to the kitchen where he opened the package in front of his two best friends, Sam and Fred. The present was a book with a colorful and elaborate binding.

As the boys paged through the book, it was filled with pictures from history. But when  Joe and the boys paused to gaze at an image of a pirate ship and made a wish about being pirates, they were unexpectedly transported into the past where they meet Black Beard the Pirate. And thus began their first adventure in time.

The boys finally returned from the past when they dug up a treasure chest filled with gold and jewels. Seeing "The Book" sitting atop the treasure, the boys quickly snatched it up,  just as Black Beard the Pirate was about to kill them. With a blink of an eye, they were transported back to Joe's kitchen table in Brooklyn.

Safely returned to their correct time, the boys promised never to open "The Book" again, but the temptation to look inside the magical tome was too great, and the boys were to have many more misadventures in time and space -- meeting such people as Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Leif Erikson, Sacagawea, the Mayan High Priest of Chichen Itza and a Neanderthal named Duh.

Eventually, during a trip to the future of  2205, the boys meet their great granddaughters Jodie, Samantha, and Freddi who continue to do their own share of time traveling, courtesy of "The Book" which Joe had bequeathed to Jodie. Now both team of time travelers bump into each other as they criss-cross the landscape of time.

TRIVIA NOTE: The program is based on the "Time Warp Trio" book series by Jon Scieszka whose first book "Knights of the Kitchen Table" was published in 1991. Boston PBS station WGBH created the animated TV series in conjunction with digital animation studio Soup2Nuts. The program first airs Saturday mornings on NBC, and then Monday afternoons on the Discovery Kids Channel.

The character "Mad" Jack is hidden in each episode. He has been stealing artifacts through time. His actions will upset the time continuum (cause it to collapse) if each stolen item is not returned to it proper place in time. Among the artifacts stolen:

• Black Beard's skull candlestick

• Fred's cow skull

• Kakapupahet's game ball

• Thomas Edison's invention plans

• Leif Erikson's seal meat dinner

• Dorkius's secret scroll

• Honda's Samurai helmet

• Temüjin's sword and hat

• Sani-Tp's toilet roll robot

• Queen Jinga's shield and spear

• Napoleon's hat