The third of four riveting historical novels, A Prayer for Blue Delaney follows the outback adventures of orphaned Colm, who runs away from the cruelties of Bindoon Boys' Home and goes in search of a family of his own.
The Children of the Wind is a much-acclaimed quartet that makes history leap off the page, with vivid characters, strong emotions and page-turning action.
Colm is an 'orphan of Empire', sent from the UK after World War II to the infamous Bindoon Boy's Home in the WA bush. He escapes and teams up with old Billy Dare and his dog, Rusty. Together they evade the authorities and go adventuring through western and central Australia, along the dingo fence, looking for work, meeting miners, Aborigines, Chinese people, landowners. Gradually, they build a scratchy but warm relationship:
'Oi, you,' said Bill. 'I said I was sorry. Cobbers have to forgive each other. You and me, we're a team. You don't want to go breaking up a good partnership when it works, do you?'
Colm folded his arms across his chest and looked out the window as Bill turned the ute.
'Dare and McCabe, fencers extraordinaire. Jacks of all trade, masters of none. That's you and me, cobber,' said Bill, nudging Colm with his elbow.
Colm wanted to stay mad but he couldn't. He could feel the slow smile creeping across his face. 'That's you and me, Grandad.'
But Colm pins his hopes on a mysterious young woman called Blue Delaney, whose photo he finds among Billy's belongings. When Billy is savaged by a wild boar, and hospitalised, Colm makes his way to the city, to Blue Delaney, where he faces new challenges and finds an unconventional family and a home, at last.
A fascinating, heart-felt story, full of action and authentic detail of outback life.
Starting in the 1840s and ending in present-day Australia, the Children of the Wind quartet tells the stories of four courageous young people, Bridie, Billy, Colm and Maeve, born fifty years apart. The central character from each book becomes a mentor to the child in the next.
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Kirsty Murray is the author of three junior novels - Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish (winner of the WA Premier's Children's Book Award, 2001), Market Blues and Walking Home with Marie Claire - in addition to the first two books in the Children of the Wind series. She has also written several non-fiction books for children. She has worked as a forest ranger, archivist, artist and teacher, and now is a full-time writer. Kirsty Murray was born in Melbourne, the middle child in a family of seven kids. Kirsty loved books from an early age but when she was a child she never read a story set in her home town. So she decided all the good stories had to be happening elsewhere. Finally, after too many years of wandering, she realised that big stories happen everywhere. Kirsty’s novels have won and been shortlisted for many awards. She lives in Melbourne in a big chaotic household with her husband and a tribe of young people.