Barney’s request to read from the notebook indicates that Felix’s storytelling ability has value to others: at minimum, it can entertain and give joy to terrified children. Yet now, Felix has turned against stories, because he feels that they blinded him to the truth of his parents’ situation. Meanwhile, Barney seems to have taken on a fatherly role toward the children he’s taken in, acting in loco parentis toward children whose parents the Nazis have killed.