Mother’s Day Book List
As Seen on CTV Your Morning, May 7 2024
Here are 8 Canadian titles that make great gifts for the mother figure in your life. Four of them are books to read with Mom, featuring family traditions, bonding, and a whole lotta love, and four are books Mom can read on her own. Remember, the gift of a book is also the gift of time! Watch the segment below or online here.
Books to Read with Mom
You’ll Always Be My Chickadee falls under the category of “I Love You” books which aren’t about plot or story but love and reassurance. As they spend a day out in nature, a mother finds various ways to remind her child that she will always be loved, comparing her to various marvels in nature. Once Upon a Sari and Hail Oil Magic both feature connection through family traditions. In Once Upon a Sari, a mother tells her child that every sari has a story, and we learn about their family history one beautiful sari at a time. In Hair Oil Magic, the reader gets an intimate glimpse into the South Asian ritual of hair oiling, a special moment between parent and child. The Green Baby Swing is a gentle story about a mother and son clearing out the attic after the boy’s grandmother has died, forging connections and memories over old photo albums and objects, like the green baby swing their family uses to carry babies. The specificity of the story and the tender questions of Xavier make this more heartwarming than tear jerking, and the lullaby the family sings is repeated throughout the story, reminiscent of another Canadian bedtime classic, Love You Forever.
Books for Mom
Love, Lies and Cherry Pie is a sweet charmer of a rom-com (with just the tinest bit of spice) in which a struggling writer (and only singleton in her family of 5) pretends to date one of the men her mother deals suitable- a stiff, buttoned-up ‘perfect Asian son’- only to find herself falling for him. The Phoenix Crown is a joint-effort by two seasoned historical fiction writers, including Canadian Janie Chang. The lives of four women from very different backgrounds intersect in this revenge novel that centres (for the most part) around the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Bury the Lead, written by another tag-team pair of authors, is a cozy mystery with tongue placed firmly in cheek. A big city reporter finds herself caught up in the murder of an infamous actor in a quaint town in the middle of cottage country in the first of what I hope will be a new series. We Rip the World Apart is a family saga spanning three generations of women that moves between Jamaica and Nova Scotia, exploring family connections, escape, and the effects of racism. A moving and important story that feels ripped from the headlines.
Happy Reading!