If I Could Change the World...

It is NOT easy being the daughter of the Chairwoman of Amalgamated Witchcraft Corporation. Anatopsis has a lot demanded of her, including, well basically... perfection. Her father, a half-mortal knight-errant, tries to help her out. He gives her a gift in the form of Clarissa, a fully mortal girl who is to be her chambermaid and friend (but Clarissa doesn't "do" chambermaiding. She'd rather read... and despite the trouble the two of them get into, Ana would rather let her.), but he's gone. A lot. And kind of self-absorbed, too.The world in which Ana lives is different from Clarissa's world. Ana's a witch, not human, and her world is protected. Clarissa is from the Earth slum, where athen, the fragments of slag that appear after magic, are deposited. Everything is black and stinking there. Queen Solomon says it's too expensive to extend environmental protection everywhere. And besides, it's just the mortals who are suffering...

Just in time for her Bacchanalian tests, everything's about to change for Ana. First, In the kingdom across the way, Prince Barnaby Georges, the son of King Georges, the Queen's main competitor is coming of age and he needs to take his Bacchanalian tests, too. Only, tradition has it that he and Ana have to have the same tutor. So, her worst enemy is coming to live with them. Next, Ana's mother, Queen Solomon, has found the world's WORST teacher for them... Mr. Pound. Mr. Pound, Ana's pretty sure, is at least half-dead. He's... cold. And his voice makes you listen. And he's searching for something, too. People in the castle are being found -- cut in ...half. Clarissa's been looking, and she can't find anything in the history books about a Mr. Pound ever educating members of Barnaby or Ana's families. Who is he? What does he want? And what does it have to do with Anatopsis, and her power? Because now, Ana is powerful. Really powerful. And she has to decide if she's going to keep that power for herself - or change the world.

This is a novel about individual choices, power and responsibility -- topics unusual for a middle grade novel, but which work together to create an interesting and unique novel.