Somewhere off the coast and around the corner there are two islands. One island is made mostly of stones and the other mainly of sand, and that’s where the problem began. 
Young Nye doesn’t understand why the people on her Island of Sand work so hard to build beautiful sandcastles every day if they are destined to be ruined by the stones catapulted over by the people of the Island of Stones every evening. When she asks “Why?” all she ever hears in response is “Because.” 
As years go by, Nye realizes that the Because is starting to make sense to her and this makes her angry. And an angry Nye decides to take action. Through this story about injustice and challenging the status quo, readers will be inspired to think deeply about why and how we can bring about change in the world.

Bree Galbraith is a graduate student of the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She uses narrative in much of her work and was thrilled when a class project became her first published children's book, Once Upon a Balloon. Bree works as a graphic designer in Vancouver, where she lives with her family.



Marion Arbona was born in France. After obtaining her diploma in animation at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, she moved to Quebec. She devotes her life to illustration, painting and animation. In constant evolution, she explores new techniques, such as scratchboard, pastel and transparency, which she combines with her favourite media—gouache, ink and image retouching.