There's A Mammoth In My Basement (Paperback or Softback)

Middle-grade just got a whole lot funnier - if you can get past the mayhem, the strangeness and a touch of the unreal.

All thirteen-year-old Joey wants to do is hang out with his best mate and avoid trouble for once. But trouble finds him anyway-this time in the basement, where he wakes to discover a giant woolly mammoth crammed in beside him.

Along with the mammoth comes frosty air, stalactites, icebergs, and a trumpeting voice so loud it shakes the walls. The mammoth isn't just any mammoth-it's Billy, straight out of Joey's little sister's storybook. But Billy isn't here for fun. He's here to teach Joey a lesson: be kinder to animals.

Problem is, Joey has zero interest in taking advice from an extinct, oversized, bossy furball. But when only Sienna, the girl next door, can see the chaos Billy causes, Joey is outnumbered when Sienna sides with Team Billy.

Then disaster strikes. One of Billy's icebergs swallows Joey's little sister whole. Suddenly, Joey has to do more than survive Billy's frosty 'life lessons'. He must save his sister-before his family changes forever.

Even if his little sister is the most annoying person on the planet.

Frances Dall'Alba lives in far north Queensland, Australia, a place where rain falls often and the landscape is dotted with lakes, mountains, and rainforest. As a thirteen-year-old, she grew up on a dairy farm, where she spent her days walking the road between home and the dairy, happily splashing through puddles in her gumboots. The farm was home to cows, but also to a few more unexpected visitors-snakes, spiders, myna birds, and cane toads.Despite the occasional intruders, the beauty of her surroundings made it easy to love her home-whether it was the creeks winding through the land or the sunsets painting the sky-it was enough to keep her enchanted by the world around her.Now, as an adult, Frances recognizes that there's a little bit of Joey in every young teen-a kid caught between innocence and the chaos of life. Throw in some giant animals, both real and imagined, and it's clear how unpredictable their lives can get. Especially when you can't see the cuteness.