How do you transform a class of defiant, disinterested, discouraged kids into a cohort alive with a common life, focussed on learning?

That is the question that began this book.

Author and teacher Sheila Smith answered the question by incorporating hands-on imagination into the curriculum through sandtray play. The results were profound.

The technique was subsequently adapted for elementary and middle school students of all ages.

Drawing on multiple sources in order to better understand what transpired, the author tells the story of how the method unfolded and brought change that at first was so seemingly miraculous.  

She supplies educators with a map for recreating these techniques within their own contexts. 

The book is a chronicle, a manual, and a work of theory. At its root, it is an encounter with children who breathed into its pages the beauty and power of their sand worlds and their stories.