The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong
Older Children/Young Adult - Contemporary Fiction
The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong | 2004 – 2005
The Children of the Wind Series | Book IV
When Maeve is sent to live with her strict Chinese grandparents, she must fight to hold onto the things she loves most – her two best friends, her dancing, her baby brother Ned. Secretly she pins her hopes on her Irish father, who doesn’t even know she exists. From Sydney to Surfers, from Hong Kong to Ireland, Maeve searches for a path to follow, a place to belong.
A story about true friends, scattered family, and the life you make for yourself.
Maeve Lee Kwong is fourteen years old and caught in a moment in time, between two sides of her family and two worlds. Connected to generations of immigrants from around the world, Maeve’s story is intertwined with characters from each of the novels in the Children of the Wind series and brings the series to a close.
See Teachers Notes
Awards
WAYRBA Shortlist 2007 (Western Australian Young Readers Book Award)
Reviews
Being an Australian born Chinese myself, I could relate to the confusion and struggle to express to other people the sense of being Australian above all else. Murray does an impressive job with Maeve’s character, illustrating the emotions and reactions that are attached to having roots from several countries…
I don’t know about you, but I’m off to my local bookstore to devour the rest of this captivating series.
Soo Lee Tan, Viewpoint Magazine
Murray writes with enormous empathy for kids and their struggles, imbuing her stories with great warmth as well as a sense of the history and the cultural cocktail that makes Australia what it is today. A compelling read for ages 12 and up.
Dani Colvin, Sunday Tasmanian
I don’t ever read. I hate reading. But I just finished your book ‘The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong’ and I loved it so much I was crying most of the way through it. It was the best book ever.
Kelly McInnes, Year 9, Damascus College, Ballarat
Behind The Book: The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong
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