Close Reading: Ziba Came on a Boat

My journey of close reading was both fascinating and difficult work. Close reading means being more focus on a particular part of a text. It is also gathering all my thoughts around and organizing my ideas, and then thinking about what it is teaching me. So I close read a picture book called, Ziba Came on a Boat, written by Liz Lofthouse. 

First, I set a reading inquiry question for myself, which was: How does setting affect the character's thinking, feeling, and mood? This story is about a girl named Ziba and her family traveling on an old fishing boat across an endless sea to find a new home. While this picture book did not really specify where Ziba's family is going, readers would've made an inference that they're traveling to a place that will be a better home for them than their old one, where the author used words like gunfire, madness, and darkness to describe it.

On her journey, the rough waves frightened Ziba and it made her think about her old home. She thought about her friends' laughter and the familiar home she had left behind. This setting of the waves washing over the boat had affected the character's thinking, feeling, and mood. She begins to think about her past and feels nostalgic, and her mood becomes gloomy. I think a child like Ziba would not cope with reality that well like her parents do, so that's why she feels down. The author also used this phrase,"endless sea," where I think it is a strong description in the story. I think that way because it shows how Ziba thought about the journey. It represented her fear and how reaching a new land seemed elusive. She must have had a tough time grasping the idea that she'll reach the new land safety and she might doubt her new home so that's why she misses her old home so much. This shows how she's not coping with reality calmly and brightly by thinking what's best for her family.
 
At the same place in the soggy old fishing boat, in the middle of the story, the journey made Ziba think about the reason why she had left as well. Thoughts about the danger and horror of her old home emerges such as gunfire and madness, like running through a war. Then she thought about her mother's weaving the wool to make a rug while the boat weaved through the murky sea. I think that the weaving of the rug symbolizes progress. So while it takes step by step to weave a beautiful rug, it takes step by step to reach the new land or a better place. It also take patience. This illustrates how Ziba is trying to be positive and hope for the best.

From close reading with Ziba Came on a Boat, I arrived with my answer to my question. I think the setting affects the character's thinking, feeling, and mood depending on what they are doing at that time and how they cope with reality. On the boat, Ziba feels homesick at the beginning and a little unsure of leaving. Later, she feels a little bit more relax and thought more about why she's leaving to go to a new land, it was because there will be freedom and opportunities out there. So connecting this to the world, we could feel secure, safe, and comfortable at home when all our loved ones are with us, or at the same place, we could feel scare and lonely when they are not with us. Wouldn't your thinking, feeling, and mood changes? One lesson I took from close reading this book is that it is important to stay calm and cope with reality and what's best for us. It is also important to deal effectively with what's going on around ourselves by staying optimistic.