53 pages 1 hour read

Linda Urban

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2007

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Chapters 20-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 20 Summary: “Are You Ready to Rumba?”

After a piano lesson, Zoe’s dad waits for Mabelline to leave so that he and Zoe can have fun on the organ together. Zoe is instructed to stick to a metronome beat, but she puts on rumba and plays the most recent showtune with creativity. Mabelline comes back, having left her keys, and it’s clear she is impressed by how Zoe played. She challenges Zoe to start incorporating the organ pedals into her playing but warns her to stick to a metronome beat.

Chapter 21 Summary: “Hugh”

Zoe’s dad’s only friend is Hugh, the UPS delivery man who brings his education packages. Hugh sometimes stops in for coffee, and on one such occasion, he tells a story about an elderly man who wanted his help putting a dead alligator in a box so he could ship it down to Florida to be buried there. Zoe and her dad laugh, and when Zoe asks what other stories Hugh has about his customers, Hugh mentions a woman who wanted to return a grand piano the other day.

Chapter 22 Summary: “In the Pink”

In music class, a substitute teacher asks if anyone knows how to play an instrument. Someone mentions Emma’s piano, but she proudly announces that it was traded for a DJ turntable and speaker system, which she plans to learn to use.