Picture books with single moms?

November 29, 2021 3:01 PM

Can you recommend any baby/picture/very-little-kid books where the parent is a single mom? The topic of the book does not much matter, just looking for more books where the only parent is Mommy. (The book definitely does NOT need to be *about* having a single parent, and in fact, it's better if it's not.) Bonus points for books about girls, but that is less essential.
posted by Charity Garfein to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

What Mommies Do Best by Laura Numeroff only features Moms (there is a companion Daddy book but if you get it board book form they are separate).

The Door Bell Rang by Pat Hutchings features a mom and a grandma.

Goodnight Moon and The RunAway Bunny have only rabbit moms.

Some of the Spot the Dog Books by Eric Hill only feature the mom dog (Sally) - Spot's Birthday and Where's Spot
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 3:18 PM on November 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Llama Llama series, by Anna Dewdney
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:46 PM on November 29, 2021 [8 favorites]

The Llama Llama books have a single mom. Male pronouns are used for the main character in some of the books but I swap in female pronouns when I'm reading to my daughter and it makes no difference to the stories.
posted by beandip at 3:46 PM on November 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B Williams is an all-time great.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:27 PM on November 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

Tough Like Mum is about a single mother.
posted by VirginiaPlain at 4:38 PM on November 29, 2021

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes is mostly about kids from around the world but a few pages at the end depict one female parent.

Where the Wild Things Are has only a mother mentioned.

One of my favorite books of all time, You Are My I Love You, has a single parent and child of unspecified gender (they’re toy bears).
posted by cali59 at 5:13 PM on November 29, 2021

Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe, also by Vera B. Williams, has a little girl narrator, her cousin Sam, her mom, and her Aunt Rosie. It doesn't specifically refer to single motherhood but no other parent is mentioned.
posted by CheeseLouise at 5:25 PM on November 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

I Love You Stinky Face

The Runaway Bunny

(Neither specifically about single parenting)
posted by beyond_pink at 5:51 PM on November 29, 2021

my favorite: the Invisible String. The kids clearly live just with their mom, but it's not about single parenting, it's about love connecting people beyond space and time.
posted by fingersandtoes at 6:00 PM on November 29, 2021

Saturday, by Oge Mora, is about a single mother and her daughter spending their special day, Saturday, together, because it is the only day the mother doesn't have to work. It has a sweet message: everything they have planned goes wrong, but they have a good day because they get to be together.
posted by TrixieRamble at 7:08 PM on November 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

A Gift for Amma: Market Day in India is lovely and one of our favorites. A young girl goes to a market in India to pick out a gift for her mom.
posted by carolr at 7:54 PM on November 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Lola at the Library - Anna McQuinn - a toddler and her mom take a weekly trip to the library and a coffee shop

Corduroy - Don Freeman - a little teddy bear is purchased by a loving girl (who shops with her mom)

Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea - Meena Harris - story of little Kamala Harris and her sister Maya organizing a crowdsourced playground for their apartment courtyard. Their dad isn’t mentioned, just their mom briefly.

The Boy and the Bindi - Vivek Shraya - a little boy longs to wear his mom’s bindi

Julián is a Mermaid I think has a mom? (Might be just a grandma tho)

Google has some suggestions. And you can search on YouTube to hear many children’s books read aloud as well.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:31 PM on November 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mama Do you love me? is a beautiful book that features an indigenous child and their mama.
posted by fairlynearlyready at 12:06 AM on November 30, 2021

Little Mouse books by Riikka Jäntti have been favourites with both our children.
posted by baueri at 4:20 AM on November 30, 2021

In my heart is excellent for little babies especially if they are in childcare during the day.
posted by neematoad at 5:57 AM on November 30, 2021

Are you my Mother? isn't about a single mother, but there's no father or any interest in one (also it is awesome and contains a Snort).
posted by Mchelly at 8:12 AM on November 30, 2021

Harry and the dinosaur s :)
posted by tanktop at 1:48 PM on November 30, 2021

Pecan Pie Baby is lovely.
posted by missrachael at 5:39 PM on November 30, 2021

The Llama Llama books! And I don’t know about the book, but Rosie Revere, Engineer has a single mom who’s an airplane pilot in the show.
posted by centrifugal at 10:14 PM on December 1, 2021