• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7

Sand is the story of a young girl, Willy Cameron, her horse named Sand, and her involvement with therapeutic riding. The novel begins when Willy is involved in a serious car accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. After the doctors tell her that she may never walk again, Willy becomes extremely depressed and self-pitying. Then when she is going (unwillingly) for physiotherapy, she meets a young boy, Ben, who is involved in therapeutic horseback riding for his juvenile arthritis, and he persuades her to give it a try. The therapy with the riding gives Willy back the partial use of her legs. While still recovering, she takes on the training of Sand, a spirited rescue horse at the stable who was injured, and now spooks easily. The story expands at this point when her friend, Ben, becomes depressed about his relationship with his father, becomes involved in drugs, and disappears after going on a bad drug trip. Willy believes she knows where he is hiding, but has no means of transportation and, against the orders of the riding master, she secretly takes Sand from the stable to try and find her friend. But Ben is not in his right mind, and Sand is easily spooked. The fate of Willy, Ben and Sand all depends on what happens next.

Luanne Armstrong, MFA, Ph.D, is a novelist, freelance writer, editor, and publisher. She is deeply interested in writing about place and nature. Her research interests also include the ethics of autobiographical writing, ecological identity, and writing as inquiry. She has published over fifty stories and essays in magazines and journals, and is the author of fourteen books, including poetry, novels, and children’s books. She has been nominated for numerous prizes and awards. Her first novel, Annie, was a best-seller in Germany. Her YA novel, Jeannie and the Gentle Giants, was nominated for Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year, the Sheila Egoff BC Book Prize Award and the Red Cedar Award. It placed second in the Silver Birch Award. It was also named by McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg as one of their top ten all time best children’s books. Luanne has taught Creative Writing for many years at the college level including at Langara College, and at summer schools in BC and Alberta. She is a popular speaker and workshop leader at writing conferences. She is presently working on a book about the ethics of autobiographical writing for Pacific Educational Press as well as a book of essays about environmental ethics. She is an adjunct professor of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Luanne currently lives on her organic heritage farm in the Kootenay region of BC.

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