In October 1957, America had plenty to worry about: rock and roll, television, bomb threats, and especially on the fourth day of that month, when the Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial satellite into orbit. The space race had begun in earnest, the Cold War was intensifying, and people grew distrustful of everything—even their neighbors and friends. In the small town of Rockwell, Maine, Annie Hughes was concerned about her nine-year-old son Hogarth’s lunch. Running a local tavern allowed Annie to raise Hogarth—a willful, imaginative boy always on the lookout for mutants or alien invaders. So when a local fisherman came to the tavern claiming to have seen a giant iron man fall into the sea, only Hogarth paid close attention to his story and set out on an adventure to find this enormous robot. Eventually, he discovered a fifty-foot-tall giant with a voracious appetite for metal and an insatiable curiosity about the world. Rumors began to spread—some said it was an alien invasion, others believed it was a secret Soviet weapon—and the peace of Rockwell was shattered. The government sent Agent Kent Mansley to investigate. As the first to encounter the giant, Hogarth and his friend Dean hid the giant in Dean’s old scrapyard. But the alarming rumors grew louder—the situation became increasingly tense, and the people of Rockwell were thrown into panic. Hogarth turned to his giant friend for help in saving the town from its own fear and prejudice, and in doing so, the giant discovered his own humanity. There are moments when you truly find your friend—even if sometimes it’s made of metal.