This book is wildly imaginative. Can imagination change reality?

[Joanna]

I would love to be able to actually shapeshift, but my faith in that being an actual possibility is near-zero, so why is the shapeshifting in this novel so meaningful to me/you?

For me, opening the imagination brings forth possibilities. Perhaps not an actual physical transformation, but an emotional / psychological / behavioural transformation. Both for play and for deep personal change.

Thoughts?