Sandcastles Last Forever

For ages 8-15 This is a very moving and uplifting story of a 10-year-old boy and his dreams of the future and fantasies of the past as he builds "the most beautiful sandcastle in the world" during his family's weeklong vacation at a beach house above the sand dunes on the seashore. He continues to rebuild it with the help of his mother and father, two older sisters, and a younger brother and sister after it is destroyed several times. Many years later he understands what his father really meant years ago, when his father told him something very special as he stood there hand in hand with both his mother and father on a moonlit night on the sand dunes above the crashing waves. The story was written by his father after Teddy brings home a Christmas present for his parents. The present is a poem he has written in a fifth grade class following his summer vacation, called "The Kingdom of Sand." The poem plays a major role in the story.