This is a story of hope and resilience about and by boys labeled by society as hopeless and "bad". The message of this story is that, given a means such a sandplay with which to reach into their imagination, children who have been damaged by violence, poverty, and racism can find valuable strengths and resilient qualities within. Sandplay is used as both a therapeutic modality and as the child's primary means of communication. The choice of figures, their placement and movement through the trays and the statements that sometimes accompany this action are used in place of standard verbal responses to explore and convey the troubled child's experiences and self-generated resilient solutions. The stories of four boys in a residential treatment setting, two from African-American and two from Hispanic families, are presented to express the particular resiliency qualities of Social Competency, Problem-Solving Ability, Autonomy and a Sense of Purpose and Future. Fifty-six color photographs of sand tray scenes and extensive quotations of their verbal commentary illustrate the "myths" these boys create. Jungian symbolic interpretations, adapted to the imaginative reality of inner-city children of color, amplify the meaning of the stories. "Hunter has begun a dialogue which we all need to be aware of participate in, if we are to heal the projection of our collective and personal shadow onto the "other" in our culture and our collective and personal lives. For this reason, this book is breaking new ground in the sandplay movement, in terns of discussing the issue and dynamics of the shadow in our society, and for emphasizing the importance of sandplay's role in healing this cultural wound." " Linda Hunter has contributed an important piece of work to sandplay research in terms of asking pertinent questions about race, resiliency, and the role that sandplay can play in these issues. The growing number of "throw away" children in our society is alarming and increasingly destructive to the fabric of our world. Hunter's book underscores the benefits of the use of sandplay in schools and residential treatment centers as a proactive intervention in the lives of our children and our collective future." -- Journal of Sandplay Therapy Vol VIII Num 1, 1999 A beautiful, clear job of telling the Sandplay story, with all its variations and with such a diverse and interesting population. A real contribution to our community. -- Harriet S. Friedman MFCC, Jungian Analyst Founding member and past president of Sandplay Therapists of America STA. Former director Hilde Kirsch Children's Center, Los Angeles. Co-author Sandplay: Past, Present and Future A real contribution to our community. -- Harriet Friedman MFCC Author, Founding Member Sandplay Therapists of America A wonderful, well-written, well-organized, and moving book! There are so few books about using sandplay with children - it fills a great void. -- Violet Oaklander Ph.D. Author Images of Resiliency inspires hope... An important resource for teachers and clinicians. -- Clark Moustakas Ph.D. Author Impressive and deeply touching, Images of Resiliency is an inspiring collection of children's sandplay stories. It provides wonderful guidance for the clinician who really wants to learn how to facilitate the development of children's creativity. -- Theresa Kestly Ph.D. Director Moving and inspiring! A wonderful book. -- Kate Amatruda. ISST, MFCC Author, Sandplay, The Sacred Healing: A Guide to Symbolic Process Remarkable demonstration of the value of sandplay therapy... written with both clarity and empathy. -- Kay Bradway Ph.D. Founding member International Society of Sandplay Therapists -ISST I have been working professionally with children and families since 1983. I am a licensed psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, and registered Play Therapist -Supervisor. I have published articles on the use of play and sandplay therapy with culturally diverse populations in CHILD WELFARE and The Journal of Sandplay Therapy. I train and supervise students and volunteers to provide a client-centered group model which makes play and sandplay therapy available at no cost to children in schools, shelters, hospitals, and other community settings. "Sandplay provides a language that is active yet safe, silent yet resonant. It can make the mysterious and unspeakable vividly visible and understandable. Sandplay, like story and the arts, provides the language of a country where fantasy and reality meet, where metaphor and image rule over fact and word." "Many children are now living between a 'rock and a hard place' with the world speeding by on the information superhighway and taking notice only when the rocks pile up too high to get past. Through sandplay we can show that there are flowers that grow in these rocky places, in the imagination of children, and they are beautiful." "What their spirit can believe in and their mind can imagine, their body can express t