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Dominic Bean and the Mammoth Melt

Emilie Christie Burack

Dominic Bean and the Mammoth Melt book cover image

September 1, 2026

Groundwood Books

  • Middle Grade

Dominic Bean and the Mammoth Melt

Emilie Christie Burack

"An imaginative adventure … perfect for curious kids." — Tui T. Sutherland, author of #1 New York Times best-selling series Wings of Fire

At first, twelve-year-old Dominic Bean is not happy when he and his sister are “dumped” with eccentric relatives on a New Hampshire cattle farm while their scientist parents work on a secret project in the Canadian Arctic. Coping with what he sees as parental abandonment, plus the pressure of bullies, schoolwork and wrangling Harriet (a stubborn pregnant Highlander cow with long, sharp horns) bring out the worst in Dom.

But the sleepy farm turns out to be full of surprises. A developer is trying to buy the Bean family land to build an Arctic-themed amusement park under a plastic dome. Dom’s nemesis at school, Edith, turns out to have a way with Harriet. And reading his dad’s old journal leads Dom to an ancient woolly mammoth tusk that his father once found in the farm’s bog.

Dom learns that his jam-making aunt and whiskey-distilling uncle are in fact in cahoots with his parents on a secret project in the old milking barn — a project that, if successful, will “de-extinct” the woolly mammoth and possibly help save the planet.