Lowly’s Book Blog

When this book first came in last year, I thought it would jump straight to the top of my reading list. Unfortunately others got in the way, and the book was shelved and forgotten. But then came it’s turn…

I really feel I should start this review with a ‘the story so far….’ comment because this book is the fourth in the Children of the Wind series. Each book in the series looks at Irish-Australian immigration, starting with the potato famine. Each immigrant encounters the subject of the previous book as an adult, and thus the books are connected.

But how does a surname like Kwong link to Irish immigration? Maeve was the daughter of a single mother. She knows nothing about her birth father except that he was an Irish backpacker. Her mother’s current partner loves her dearly, but never formally adopted her. So when Maeve’s mother is killed suddenly, Maeve’s legal guardians are her Chinese migrant grandparents. Her comfortable life of school, friends and even her baby brother are taken away and she is forced to speak Chinese at home, move interstate, and forget her previous life. Before she moves away she does find some old letters her mother kept and discovers her father’s name.

It is too long and complicated to explain here, but Maeve does form a relationship with her father. And she learns to negotiate with her grandparents, successfully returning to her Sydney school. This book, like the others in the series, is all about personal growth.

I have loved this series, right from the riveting description of Bridey’s family’s struggles to survive during the famine. There are no pulled punches and the experiences of each of the children are told realistically. My only concern with each book is the fact that sometimes the plot becomes a touch fantastic, like when Maeve gets offered the chance to travel to Ireland and happens to run into someone who know her father on the streets of Dublin.