Sesha must race to find a priceless scroll before time runs out.

SECRETS OF THE SANDS
by Alisha Sevigny
Dundurn Press, 2020 – 2022
(via The Rights Factory)

Book 1: THE LOST SCROLL OF THE PHYSICIAN (January 2020)

After a brutal fire takes their parents’ lives, Sesha and Ky, children of the pharaoh’s royal physician, are left charming snakes and stealing food to survive. Unsure of who to trust, the pair are found and brought back to the palace, where the pharaoh tasks Sesha with finding a rare medical document her father was transcribing. But are the royals hiding something?

Befriended by a fellow scribe and a young princess, Sesha navigates palace intrigue and temple treachery while urgently seeking the valuable papyrus. For the scroll doesn’t just have the power to keep the pharaoh’s army alive and reveal the secrets around her parents’ death—it may be the only thing that can save Ky’s life.

Book 2: THE DESERT PRINCE (September 2020)

Ancient Egyptian healer and scribe Sesha is ready for another role: spy.

Forced to flee Thebes or face death, Sesha and her friends, Paser and Reb, travel up the Nile and into the desert in search of a hidden oasis. Led by a freed spy, they plan to rescue Pharaoh’s daughter Princess Merat, given to a Hyksos chieftain against her will. Before they can get there, though, they have to battle lurking crocodiles, endless dunes, and blinding sandstorms.

When the group finally straggles into the Hyksos camp, they find the rebels preparing for combat. But as Sesha and her friends spend time with the rival tribe, the lines in the sand begin to blur. When she takes on a dangerous secret mission and learns about a prophecy that could change the course of history, Sesha has to decide where her future—and the real danger—lies.

Book 3: THE ORACLE OF AVARIS (January 2022)

A search for answers from a mysterious Oracle has Sesha and her friends navigating intrigue and danger in this thrilling conclusion to the SECRETS OF THE SANDS series.

Leaving the oasis, Sesha and her friends set sail for Avaris, intent on stopping the Hyksos Chieftain from claiming the throne and declaring war on Thebes. On the journey, Sesha learns that she and the scroll are at the centre of a pair of prophecies made by a famed Oracle—prophecies with staggering implications for both her and the Hyksos people. But when the crew arrives in the bustling port city, they are stunned to learn the Oracle is missing. With the prophecies now in doubt and their lives in danger, Sesha, Paser, and Reb must race to find a mysterious Priestess sect and witness the third and final prophecy before the upcoming lunar eclipse.

As the young scribes seek answers, Sesha must untangle her past and future while keeping war from erupting in the present. For there is one person she cannot bear to face across the Hyksos battlefield: her brother.

Alisha Sevigny is the author of MG adventure series, SECRETS OF THE SANDS, as well as YA contemporaries, Summer Constellations and Kissing Frogs. Her baby board book Give Me a Snickle! came out April 2022. Alisha’s novels have been CCBCs Best Books for Kids & Teens picks and she was one of three finalists in North America’s National Excellence for Romance Fiction Award (NERFA) in their YA category. Born and raised in BC’s Pacific Northwest’s temperate rainforest, she now makes her home in the Cayman Islands with her family. A former literary agent, Alisha is also an actor, yoga teacher, tarot reader, and an avid collector of crystals.