Ages ago, giants arrived on the coastlines of the world. They built tall round houses on the dark headlands. Out their high windows the lighthouse giants shone bright lanterns to guide ships safely past their homes.Â
            Blanco is the last of the lighthouse giants. From sunset to sunrise he shines his fish-oil lantern from his house on Cape Humbug, to aid steamer ships along the Oregon coast.Â
            Jenny Hughes, age ten, is Blancoâs friend. Jenny lives with her father, Jacob, on the Hughes Dairy Ranch below Cape Humbug. Each day Jenny and her father bring Blanco a kettle of clam chowder for his daily meal. Jenny teaches Blanco reading and writing. In turn, the lighthouse giant teaches Jenny, who wishes to become a marine scientist, the ways of the ocean and its creatures.
            Blancoâs job is threatened when a conman, Professeur Poisson, arrives in Port Beaver, hoping to replace the giant with a first-order Fresnel lens and modern machinery. Can Jenny help save the giantâs lighthouse job? A tough task considering the entire town is against her. Book-with-Tunes! Scan the QR codes or click links to hear the songs.
Douglas Evans taught elementary-grade students for twenty five  years in settings ranging from a small logging town in Oregon to international schools in Helsinki and London.Â
            His  published books for children include THE ELEVATOR FAMILY (Delacorte/Yearling), CLASSROOM AT THE END OF THE HALL (Scholastic  received record reprint rights.), APPLE ISLAND, OR THE TRUTH ABOUT TEACHERS (Scholastic), MATH RASHES, AND OTHER CLASSROOM TALES (Scholastic), MOUTH MOTHS, MORE CLASSROOM TALES (Scholastic), and MVP*: THE MAGELLAN VOYAGE PROJECT (Boyds Mills  a Junior Library Book Guild selection and winner of three state awards.).Â
            Many of his short stories have appeared in CRICKET publications.  His play, THE ELEVATOR FAMILY, has been produced over one-hundred times in theaters around the world.