Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. How are mothers typically characterized in young adult stories? Thinking generally about young adult literature, what conclusions can be drawn regarding the role of mother characters across genres?

Teaching Suggestion: These questions will help students examine the literary context regarding the usual depiction of mothers in YA literature. Students might approach this question as a think-pair-share activity to notice connections in the ways that mothers are represented in fiction or media. Students may notice an emerging pattern: mothers who fall under either the “evil mother/stepmother” archetype (such as in Cinderella or Snow White) or the “benevolent but absent” archetype (for example, in Harry Potter and other stories that include the orphan archetype). The accompanying resources include examples of mother characters’ usual representation in literature to help students establish a framework for understanding literary precedents. With this knowledge, students can analyze how Lowry subverts expectations surrounding the role of mothers in YA literature to explore themes of maternal love and sacrifice.

• “Motherhood in Literature” by Dale Salwak analyzes the depiction of mothers in literature throughout history, ranging from mythology to contemporary literature; at the end of the article, he examines literary models and archetypes of mothers.