I think any kind of parenting is hard, no matter what gender you’re raising. But as a mother to a daughter, I feel like our relationship has so many layers and nuances that it’s easy for it to falter. These books can help ease those pains of a mother-daughter relationship while simultaneously making it stronger. Read them with your daughter, read them alone, or buy her a copy to read on on a special day. Sometimes, books say it better for our children than we mamas can.
You can’t write about the relationship between mothers and daughters without mentioning Little Women. With Marmee raising her four wildly different girls alone as their father fights in the Civil War, she is the glue that holds their family together and is her daughters’ stability in very trying times. This is the book you need when you worry that your daughter will no longer need you as she gets older. Spoiler alert — she will.
After her own mother is killed, Lily’s entire life is affected in The Secret Life of Bees. Although it sounds like a tragic way to bring you and your daughter together, the book is really an incredible story on loss, faith, and how our mothers are part of our beings as much as we are part of ourselves.
If you haven’t read Olivia, you’re missing a great mother and daughter relationship. Olivia is an imaginative, feisty, creative pig that is, “very good at wearing people out.” Her own mother tells her the same as she tucks her in at night, but reminds her just how much she loves her. Perfect for the days when your little girl has pushed you to the brink, and she needs a reminder that your love will never fade, no matter how impatient or frustrated you may be.
Little House on the Prairie, the story of Laura and her family, is one to share with your own little girl. There’s no stronger mom in literature than Ma Ingalls, and her bravery, strength, and heart is what Laura needs to help survive the life the family has created together.
It can be hard to understand why your little one is having such a tough time as a kid, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is just the book you two need to help understand each other. With Ramona’s mother working so her father can go back to school, Ramona’s having a tough time adjusting to being eight and all of the responsibilities it entails. But her parents aren’t having an easy time of it either. It’s a great way to let your girl know she’s not alone, and to discuss big life changes and how they can affect both of you.
This is part of a larger collection of seventeen books in total about the mother daughter bond - read the full list here.
