The Zanna Function

by Daniel Wheatley

Overview

When fourteen-year-old Zanna Mayfield gets an acceptance letter from St. Pommeroy's School for Gifted Children, she jumps at the chance to put her considerable intellect to good use. But nothing can prepare her for the first day, when she discovers that she is a Scientist -one able to see and bend the basic functions of the universe like velocity, gravity, and chemical reactions to her own purposes. As Zanna struggles to make friends and learn how to use her abilities at her new school, her troubles multiply when a mysterious woman begins stalking her, dead set on keeping Zanna out of St. Pommeroy's. If Zanna has any hope of finishing her first year, she'll need to master every function she can get her mind around-including the one that defines Zanna herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631631696
Publisher:	North Star Editions
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	8 - 13 Years

About the Author

Daniel Wheatley worked as a financial news proofreader and copy editor before making the transition to editor at Mascot Books, a hybrid self-publisher in Herndon, Virginia. When not helping other writers achieve their dreams, he enjoys teaching swing dancing and collecting cheesy movies. The Zanna Function is his debut novel. Find him online at grammatarium.com or on Twitter @grammatarium.

Editorial Reviews

"A beautifully intricate debut novel."—School Library Journal

"This book will appeal to young middle-grade magic lovers and aspiring scientists."—VOYA

From the Publisher

2017-11-22
Zanna Mayfield's life changes when she's accepted to the St. Pommeroy's School for Gifted Children. After a bizarre false start, the studious white girl is visited by a Dr. Mumble, who reveals to her that she has the power to manipulate the laws of the universe, and in order to learn about them, she must commit to attending St. Pommeroy's, which is located on a secret island. Before she departs for it, a mysterious woman appears in Zanna's bedroom and asks her to sign a contract to never attend St. Pommeroy's; Zanna refuses. Mysteriously, everyone at the school knows that Zanna has been visited by this woman; perhaps it's a metallurgical illusion? Along with navigating this strange, new school, Zanna must worry about why she, of all of the students, has been chosen by this seemingly nefarious entity. From the start, the story jumps into dizzying discussions of physics, metallurgy, and other sciences at this secret school. St. Pommeroy's feels an awful lot like Hogwarts, with its exciting course work and eccentric instructors (unfortunately, some descriptions move beyond eccentricities into stereotype). The slow pace takes an unexpected metaphysical turn that leads Zanna to a twist that's closer to home than she could have imagined—and that leads readers into what feels like a completely different book. The scientific details that explain the twist may have the potential to excite a physicist, but they leave lay readers juggling science and metaphysics as if the book doesn't know its audience. Jarring, disconnected, even at times nonsensical. (Science fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews