Have you ever had trouble making a friend? Well, your problems were nothing compared to Cy's. He is a builder and inventor, great with tools and creating things - but you can't make a friend on a workbench. "Making a friend means venturing out." And while Cy is confident in his tool skills, this big hairy Cyclops isn't too sure of his social skills. He practices conversation, eye contact, and looking friendly, and even builds a chariot for two to share with a friend. When he goes into town to buy wheels for the chariot, he tries out the eye contact "perhaps a little too much" and tries to look confident "possibly not enough." But he heads home with the wheels and then returns with the chariot to try and find a friend. This time his efforts pay off!
The text is brief, but clear, and makes this a book that encourages readers to look to the illustrations for more detail. When it says that "Cy was born to build." we can see his workshop with the neatly organized workbench and blueprints hanging on the wall. In the scene where "he practices polite conversation", we gaze at Cy pouring tea and speaking to the robotic centaur he has assembled out of a footstool. The illustrations themselves are colorful and filled with creatures from mythology, everything from a centaur to the Teumessian Fox. And the variety of things that Cy can make (minus friends, of course), is amazing.
For young readers who are nervous about making friends, perhaps starting school for the first time, this would be a great book to share with them and then talk about how they could follow some of Cy's tips.
I received a review copy from the publisher.
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