Most Memorable Moms in Kid-Lit

By Stacy Parish, Children’s Department

 Mother’s Day will be celebrated in America this year on Sunday, May 8. Now, Darling Reader, I like and respect your intelligence and taste, hence I will not tell you the egregious lie that motherhood is all sunshine and lollipops and playdates in the park, even if your kids are as fabulous as mine. Honestly, some days are monsoons and Brussels sprouts and grouting all the bathrooms in your house. So the following list of amazing moms is not presented with the intent to make you feel less-than about your own life, but to remind you that they are fictional characters. I’d like to think that even Marmee March would quickly morph into Mommie Dearest if she had to hear the words “I don’t have anything to wear!” for the fifty-eleventh time, or “Why is there never anything good to eat in this house?” as they stand in front of a fully-stocked refrigerator and/or pantry. Not that my children would ever do that. But I digress . . .

Here, in no particular order of magnificent Mom-ness, are some of my personal favorite mothers from children’s literature:

Charlotte—Charlotte’s Web by EB White (J F WHI) Yeah, I know, most people don’t love on the arachnids, but Charlotte the Spider is such a kind and wise mother figure to Wilbur the Pig. She becomes his staunch defender, and eventually saves his bacon (OMG, I’m so sorry, I couldn’t resist.) SPOILER ALERT: even the most jaded reader will be hard-pressed to hold back the tears at the book’s close, with Charlotte’s life ending as her wee hatchlings’ lives are just beginning.

Mother Bird—Are You My Mother? PD Eastman (J E EAS) This book, about a baby bird who escapes from his egg a bit too early and goes in search of his mother (who is away from the nest procuring a tasty worm for her precious fledgling) is an excellent book to read for Mother’s Day. Birdlet asks a whole host of characters, from the living (kitten, hen, dog, cow) to the inanimate (car, boat, airplane, steamshovel), if they are his mother. With each response, Little Wing learns that they are not in fact his mother. Haven’t we all been this little bird at some point in our lives? Whether we’ve temporarily gotten disconnected from our mom in the wilds of Kroger or are living hundreds of miles away from her in a dirty cold unfriendly town somewhere above the Mason-Dixon Line, that desperate feeling when you just really, really need your mother is all too real. SPOILER ALERT: with an assist from the steamshovel called Snort, Birdie does in fact find his mother, and his dinner.

Molly Weasley—Harry Potter series by JK Rowling (J F ROW) The matriarch of the boisterous Weasley clan, Molly Weasley is a desperately needed maternal figure for our beloved Harry. She is the center and the moral compass of a large and raucous family, and is by turns gentle nurturer and fierce protector; the part during the Battle of Hogwarts, where Molly defends her daughter Ginny from the ghastly Bellatrix Lestrange, always makes me smile. I mean, a mom of a bunch of redheads with a magic wand? Righteous!

Sarah—Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (J F MAC) Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton answers widowed farmer Jacob Witting’s advertisement for a mail-order bride, and travels from her seaside home in Maine to vast, landlocked Kansas to meet Jacob and his children, Anna and Caleb. Will she like them? Will she stay? Does she sing? Anna’s and Caleb’s longing for a mother to love and to love them back nearly leaps from every page. Strong, independent, kind Sarah completes the Witting family.

Marmee/Mrs. March—Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (J F ALC) Literary moms don’t get any better than Marmee, or Mrs. March, mother of the March daughters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (AKA the Little Women.) Kind, charitable, and loving, Marmee holds the March household together throughout the Civil War and Mr. March’s long absence serving as a chaplain. She can always be relied on, no matter what.

Raksha/Mother Wolf —The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (J F KIP)  Although the snide query “What, were you raised by wolves?” is generally not indicative of someone having an abundance of grace and good manners, one could certainly do worse than having a mom like Raksha (which means “protection” in Hindi and other languages.) Not only does she save Mowgli the man-cub from being Shere Khan’s tasty tiger treat, but she takes him into her pack and raises him as her own. “And it is I, Raksha the Demon, who answers,” said Mother Wolf angrily. “The man cub is mine! He shall not be killed! He will run with my Pack and hunt with my Pack. In the end, you hunter of man cubs, you frog eater and fish killer . . . . he will hunt you!” Really puts the car rider line at your child’s elementary school into perspective, doesn’t it?

So, Darling Reader—regardless of your location or your circumstances, may you all have a blessed Mother’s Day.

 

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As always, the random ramblings that are revealed here are the sole province of the author and may not be reflective of the opinions of any other WCPL employees, their children, or their pet pigs. The author has been compared to a mother wolf in the past, but sadly, she does not possess a magic wand.