Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted weekly by The Broke and Bookish and anyone is free to participate! This week’s topic is relating to mothers. But I’m just going to do mother figures/parents because not all people have mothers or good mothers.
Anyway, for heaven sake, when looking through my Goodreads list, I could barely find any mothers in YA. All the mothers I was able to find in my books were absent or awful, so this list is going to be a little out of there. I must be reading the wrong books. Anyway, I’m just going to talk about mother figures; some traditional mothers and some just really good people. Obviously all parents have their flaws, no parents are perfect, but there are some really good parental figures in YA, here are just the ones I found. I’m sure I missed some. And just because I love to hate bad characters, I’ve included some dishonorable mentions at the bottom.
- Lily Potter from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
I think we forgot how brave Lily was as a mother. Yes, obviously Molly Weasley but she’ll get lots of love this week so it’s Lily for me. I remember Lily most in the context of Snape’s memory because that’s the largest excerpt of all the Harry Potter books she appears in. The descriptions of her by other people (Lupin, Slughorn and random character we only met once) also stand out to me (kind, loving etc), but we’re told how she was, instead of shown. As such, I spend little to no time thinking about Lily as Harry’s mother. But surely she was a good, albeit not perfect, mother. She obviously loved Harry more than everything; she literally died protecting him. I’m still not sure why she didn’t jump out the window and then disparate, but that’s more of a critique on JK’s part. - Margot Covey from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
From the very beginning, it’s clear who has been acting as the second parent when we first meet Margot in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Lara Jean and Kitty love her as a sister, but it’s clear they look up to her as much as they look up to their dad. I’m sure Margot sacrificed a lot to be there for her sisters and to help her father raise them after their mother passed away. It’s not easy to take parenthood in any sphere, much less when you’re not fully an adult yourself. - Inej Ghafa from Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
I mean, who can deny that Inej pretty much is the Dregs’ moral compass in most situations. She’s the person who serves up the truth and never loses faith in the group. She seems the most mature out of all of them (not like any of them are immature) and honestly, is full of wisdom. Among all the Dregs’ she seems the most parent-like in nature. Like remember those looks your mom use to give you when you did something bad, yeah, that’s Inej embodied. - Hana from Wolf Children: Yuki and Ame by Mamoru Hosoda
As someone who was raised by a single parent, I LOVED reading about Hana’s journey. Yes, this story is largely about Yuki and Ame growing up; but seeing Hana and her strength was such an inspiration to me. I think she’s one of my favorite mothers. She overcame and sacrificed so much to raise her children in the best possible way she could and did everything to protect them.
Dishonorable parents mention:
- Ramona’s Mom from Ramona Blue and Cath and Wren’s mom from Fangirl
- I will always hate on deadbeats.
- The Wicked Stepparent
- That pretty much takes care of 60% of bad parents
- Anthony Templeman from The Hating Game
- Up, down and look out the window, that Anthony.
- Maxim Maresh from Shades of Magic
- Don’t @ me, he’s flipping terrible. Spoiler: I’m not even mad he’s dead.
- Anna’s dad from Anna and the French Kiss
- He’s pretty much Nicholas Sparks lezbehonest
- Any parents who breathe or has a line of dialogue in dystopic YA books.
- Elphaba’s dad from Wicked
- He’s the one who went flying off the handle
- I’m sorry for missing some; I know I did.
Any mutual feelings of parents out there? Let me know in the comments!
Hana from Wolf Children! She is never mentioned enough, which bugs me because she is so amazing. I may still be a student, but I find her incredibly inspiring.
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I know!! She’s so strong and tender. I love how she’s so selfless and giving. She went through so much hardship.
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Lily Potter is a great choice! A wonderful mother ❤
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I know! If her youth was any indication of her adulthood, I’d say she would have been an excellent mother.
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You’re right it was so hard to get a list of good mothers together! Lily’s a great choice, like you say you don’t get to know her much, but she sounds lovely in that letter Harry finds in the last book : )
My TTT: http://whenitdoes.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/top-ten-tuesday-memorable-mothers-in.html
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Oh my gosh, I’ve completely forgot about the letter Harry read in Sirius’ house! It must be time to review the book!
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I love your spin on this! I almost put Margot Covey on my list too. She was such a huge presence in the books even though she wasn’t actually in them. Great list!
My Top Ten
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I completely agree! I just think about how mature she is and wish I was like that at her age!!
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I’ve only read Harry Potter from your list, but I completely agree that it’s easy to forget about Lily as a mother, since we aren’t really given much of her character as one.
My TTT.
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Definitely! Other than Snape’s memory in the 7th book, the other part of the series I remember her best in is in the 5th book, coincidentally also in Snape’s memory, when she stood up for Snape when James and Sirius were bullying him. I think we can easily tell from that part she was not someone who stood for nonsense and cruelty.
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I totally agree about Lily! She was a great mom!
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She really was! I’m running out of compliments to pay to Lily, but she obviously left a very positive impression on everyone she met.
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Lily Potter was a good choice. I wish that J.K. Rowling would have written a prequel about her so we could have gotten to know her better. I always think of Molly Weasley first when I think of wonderful moms in the Potterverse, but Lily would no doubt have been just as grand if she’d lived long enough for Harry to remember her.
Here is my TTT.
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Yeah, Molly does get a lot of attention. She obviously had an infinite capacity to love; although I have issues with how she treated Hermione, Fleur and Sirius. Despite her faults, she really tried to do what was best for her family and her no-nonsense attitude made sure her children grew up right.
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It’s really nice to see Lily Potter featured in one of these, I feel like a lot of people tend to forget about her.
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I know! I almost did too, I’m not sure why she came to my mind. Luckily I have seen her around on some of the lists I’ve read, so it was a nice surprise!
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Most of YA seems to be based on the premise that kids raise themselves after age 13.
I have Anna and The French Kiss on my TBR – yeah I’m late to the party.
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I know!! It’s like the parents just drop them after that… it’s bizarre! I was also late to the Party with AATFK, but it’s really good! A nice fun read for the summer!
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Some literary characters like Molly Weasley and Fantine are wonderful mothers. But whenever I think of horrible parents, the first characters that come to mind are the Thenardiers. Well, I know I brought up Les MIs more than once, but I do have this obsession with it
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