Jane Read

Jane Read is the mother of Arthur, D.W., and Kate. She is married to David Read, and works as a full-time work-at-home tax accountant.

Physical appearance
Jane Read is depicted with a tan complexion and shaggy brown hair and wears a pink sweater over a white shirt, blue jeans, and white Velcro shoes with purple loops. Like her son Arthur, the white shirt she wears underneath the sweater is tucked into her pants. Originally, she had a long snout and was based upon an actual aardvark with the rest of her family in Arthur's Nose. She and the other aardvarks were redesigned in Arthur's Eyes that was published three years later. In the '80s, she and the other aardvarks had their snouts gradually shortened until it became flat. In the books, she wore different clothes of different colors. In the episode Crushed she dressed like a princess when filling in for the head caterer of the medieval reenactment society. Then again in D.W.'s dream in D.W.'s Time Trouble, when D.W. traveled back in time the differences between the costumes of the two episodes was the color; it was purple in the episode Crushed and pink in the episode D.W.'s Time Trouble.

Past life
Jane grew up near an Unidentified Town on Grandpa Dave's Farm (inferred, as her father, Grandpa Dave is said to have lived there for a long time). When Jane was a baby, she wore a pink dress with white cuffs, a white hair bow, and white shoes. Her diaper was covered by the skirt, and it is likely she wore wool diapers since they were in favor when she and others her age were babies. During her high school years, when she started going out with David, she had longer, thicker hair and wore pink disco clothes with white boots that were fashionable between the late 1960s through the 1970s. She is mostly known as a normal person.

Other Media
In the Living Books computer games, she had a light brown complexion and orange hair (and sometimes straight hair) in Arthur's Teacher Trouble and a light complexion and light brown hair in Arthur's Birthday. It was likely due to color and tone restrictions during the 16-bit era of computers and software. In those two games, she was voiced by Jennifer Hewitt before the cartoon show replaced her with Sonja Ball.

In the later games during the 32-bit era of computers and software such as Arthur's Thinking Games, her appearance was the same as she looks in the cartoon show.

Personality
Jane is quite caring and loving to her three children, though seems passively exasperated on a daily basis due to the antics of her kids. She is a bit more strict than her husband, usually with D.W. as David is with Arthur. Arthur always refers to her as "Mom", but D.W. usually refers to her as "Mommy", because D.W. is younger than Arthur. She wants the best for her children, like making sure they keep their rooms clean. Jane is also the most talented at cleaning the house. Jane can sometimes be quite firm when Arthur and D.W. are frequently arguing and quarreling. Jane also does not seem to mind D.W.'s bothering of Arthur, as she usually sighs and goes about her day whenever Arthur complains of D.W.'s tomfoolery. She also may have a more greedy and self-absorbed side, as she fantasizes of one day escaping her family life to pursue personal interests (as seen in "Pick a Car, Any Car").