Z-Baby (8) can’t read very well yet. She reads, but not well enough to enjoy reading the stories that are appropriate for her maturity and intellectual level. We do read to her, but we can’t read to her all day long. So, she has discovered the joy of recorded books. When she’s not doing school or something else that I ask her to do, while she’s playing Barbies and other eight year old games, she’s listening to a book on CD. And she listens to them over and over again. Right now the favorite is the Newbery-award winning book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. For today’s Read Aloud Thursday, I present an interview with Z-baby on her favorite listening experience. FYI, the story is about a brother and sister, Jamie and Claudia, who run away from home and hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While there, they try to solve a mystery concerning Michaelangelo and a small statue.

How many times have you listened to From the Mixed-Up Files?
Z: I’ve listened to it whole twice. Parts, three times. I’m listening to it again today.
(Editors’s note: It’s been more like ten or twelve times at least. Z-baby isn’t very good at estimating.)

What do you like about the story?
Z: I don’t know. It’s just interesting. First of all, I like it when stories are really long.

Who’s your favorite–Jamie or Claudia?
Z: Jamie, because he’s funny. My favorite part is when Jamie says, ” You said it. You said it.”

Why does Claudia pick Jamie to run away with?
Z: Because he can keep quiet, and he’s rich. And he has a radio.

Why does Claudia enjoy planning?
Z; Because it’s a secret. And it’s fun to keep secrets.

How do you think Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid felt when Claudia and Jamie ran away?
Z: Worried. Scared.

Would you like staying in the Metropolitan Museum? What would you like to see there? What section of the museum would you like to explore?
Z: Yes. I would want to see all the paintings by Leonardo da VInci.
(At this point in the interview, Betsy-Bee horned in even though Z-baby was insisting that this was her book interview.)
Betsy-Bee (10): I would want to go around and look at everything, not just stand and look at one thing.

How do Claudia and Jamie get more money?
Z: They took a bath in the fountain, and people tossed change in the fountain. They could find the coins and get more money.
BB: I didn’t hear that part.

What do you think Claudia was running away from?
Z: She wanted them to appreciate her. She didn’t feel bad exactly; she just wanted her family to think she was special.

She said she wanted to go back home “different.” How did she want to be different?
Z: She wanted to be a heroine.

What is a heroine?
Z: A hero
BB: It’s a girl hero.
Z: Sometimes it’s a person who saves people.
BB: It can be a hero that is nice to someone.
Z: Or it can be somebody who does something special and good. Or does something important.

Claudia says, “When you hug someone, you learn something else about them. An important something else.” What do you think she means?
Z: She means you just get to know them.
BB: When you hug someone, you get to know them, and they’ll like you. You get to know them better because they’re happy, and they’ll tell you more things, I guess.

Why do Mrs. Frankweiler and the children get along so well?
Z: Because both of them have secrets.
BB: Because I think that they were happy that she had a sketch of the angel, and that was her secret. They might have been scared of her, but then they shared a secret.

What would you say to make other kids want to read this book?
Z: I would say that it’s very interesting and exciting. It just has a lot of meaning. When it starts out, you might not think so, but it really is interesting.
BB: But a little word of advice, don’t listen to it over and over again because your family might get tired of it.

HT to Scholastic’s Discussion guide for some of the questions used here.