Top 5 Literary Mothers

So today is my Mom’s birthday, so in honor of that today I’m listing my top 5 literary mothers! Now in YA I feel like the mothers are often background characters we don’t see much of so this was not an easy list to come up with.

Rosa Hubermann | The Book Thief

Now Rosa is not Liesel’s real mother. She’s her foster mother and at first she doesn’t seem to care for Liesel all that much and appears very strict. But I have a distinct memory of sobbing over the book at 1 in the morning. It was reading the scene where Liesel admits that she spent some of Rosa’s money to send a letter to her real mother and she realizes her mother will never write back and she would never see her again. And then Rosa apologizes and Liesel says “she leaked a little” meaning Rosa is crying and that scene broke me.

Mindy Sheridan | Eleanor and Park

I love Park’s mom in Eleanor and Park. She is so welcoming to Eleanor and even though it seems she may not like her at first, when she realizes that Eleanor comes from a big family and has a lot of responsibility she really comes to understand her and is so sweet in trying to make Eleanor always feel welcome.

Molly Weasley | Harry Potter

Now disclaimer: I have not read all the Harry Potter books. BUT I have read 1-4 and the beginning of 5 and Mrs. Weasley is one of my favorite characters. In the movies she’s not shown as much but one of my favorite scenes thus far in the books is at the end of the fourth book when she is there to comfort Harry when he needs a mother most. She is so sweet to him and even though she has so many of her own children to look after, she is nothing but sweet to Harry.

Sally Jackson | Percy Jackson

How can you not love Sally Jackson? She does so much to protect Percy and sacrifices her own happiness to do it. But even though she’s doing all she can to keep him safe, she still goes out of her way to make him happy. I love the mention of how she makes as much blue food as possible just because Gabe once said there wasn’t blue food and how the blue food carried on throughout the entire series and spinoff.

Frannie Lancaster | The Fault in our Stars

Although a bit of a background character for a lot of the book Frannie Lancaster is a great mother. I can hardly imagine what it is like to watch your child suffer like that but I love all that she does for Hazel. She is so encouraging and positive throughout the book. Plus I love that at the end she reveals she’s been taking classes to become a social worker to help others through experiences similar to her own which just shows what an amazing woman she is.