The mother of first lady Michelle Obama was an open book while reading to elementary school children in the nation’s capital.

Outside the U.S. department of education building, Marian Robinson read “The Napping House” to a group of Maryland students.

Mrs. Robinson, who rarely speaks in public, answered questions from the audience, from what the white house looks like, to what the first daughters like to do.

“Malia and Sasha cannot watch TV; I think they can only watch an hour a day,” she said. “But they are at the age now where they’d rather read books or play games with themselves so Grandma is beginning to feel left out.”