In honor of Mother’s Day, even though it’s over this year, I am blogging about picture books that feature mothers and mother figures. Mothering is never out of season! Inspire your sons and daughters with these amazing stories of real women who exercised their mother bear chemistry for great causes. The above book features Luba. She was a real person whose own child was taken away from her by the Nazis. She found purpose and meaning in mothering a group of orphans during WW2.

Here is the description of the book from amazon.com:

“Why am I still alive? Why was I spared?

“One night in 1944, Luba Tryszynska’s questions were answered when she found fifty-four children abandoned behind the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. Luba knew if the Nazis caught her she could be executed.

“But they are someone’s children. And they are hungry.

“Despite the mortal dangers, Luba and the women of her barracks cared for these orphans thro-ugh a winter of disease, starvation, and war.

“Here is the true story of an everyday hero and the children who gave her a reason to live.

” ‘My name is Luba Tryszynska-Frederick and this is my story. I never thought of myself as a particularly brave person, certainly not a hero. But I found that inside every human being there is a hero waiting to emerge. I never could have done what I did without the help of many heroes. This story is for them, and for the children.” ” –Luba Tryszynska-Frederick

The above book is written for 4-7 year olds to help them learn about Corrie Ten Boom. She wasn’t a biological mother but she definitely exercised her gift of motherly protection and standing up for justice when she hid Jews during WW2. She ranks right up there with Irene Sendler, below, as a hero for all mothers to follow.

If you don’t know who these women are, please go read these books. These women were amazing! Knowing what they did with what they had makes my mothering journey not so daunting.

I think most of us know the amazing Harriet Tubman below. Do you know about Mumbet, above? She was a real woman who stood up for her independence as a slave in colonial Massachusetts and therefore claimed it and was set free. She’s so astounding!

When I started blogging about Grandma Gatewood over here, I decided I wanted to make a whole blog post about a lot more picture books about moms. So voila, here you are reading it!

The picture book above is about Mahala Yousafzai’s story. She was a teen girl who fought for the right of women and girls to learn in her home country of Pakistan, despite an attempt on her life. So inspiring!

The above is a darling story about a woman who couldn’t have her own biological children, and transferred all that maternal energy to caring for baby animals for the Bronx Zoo, where her husband was a zookeeper.

This one above is based on true people: women who were Pack Horse Librarians. They traveled on horses in the Depression to bring books to children in isolated areas in rural Appalachian Kentucky.

Then here are some stories about mothering that are completely fictional but nevertheless inspiring.