[1] Sand Monkeys follows a period in the life a sixteen-year-old boy named Max, upon moving into a new household in Petersham, an inner suburb of Sydney Australia.

Like Joanne Horniman's other works, The Serpentine Belt (1994) and Loving Athena (1997), Sand Monkeys features the theme of the search for a lost parent, as well as the forging of strong bonds between characters who are not related by blood.

[2] In common with Joanne Horniman's other books, Sand Monkeys concerns people's interaction with the natural world - in this case, with the trees that Max raises and plants.

Emma and her father Ted — an old friend of Max's parents — had arrived in the household some months earlier.

Since arriving in Sydney, Emma had secretly located and found her mother, whom she had never previously met.

It is through this friendship that Emma starts to find a real sense of belonging in the household.

Where have you been all my life?”,[4] this comment making Max sense a spiritual connection between themselves and the trees.