(2) K-3 Illustrated by G. Brian Karas. If you remember this poem, you probably remember it as "Under the spreading chestnut tree," and indeed a chestnut it is. But an agreeable one, as here partnered with modest pencil-and-crayon illustrations by Karas, expanding (barely) upon Longfellow's words and placing the poem (gently) in our own time. We see a young ponytailed blacksmith--hardly the brawny-armed hero of the text, but looking sturdy enough--as he and his truck pick up scrap metal at the junkyard and take it back to his shop 'neath that legendary tree. Alongside Longfellow's "children coming home from school," we watch him forge, the fierce coal fire dramatically shooting orange-yellow sparks onto a palette of mainly subdued tones of gray, brown, and green. While there's a small visual through line about the smith fixing a fence for a neighbor, Karas does not attempt to impose a new story upon the poem and respects its saddest moment, when the blacksmith remembers his late wife, showing us the man with his children in church, gazing out the window at the graveyard. It's all in the poem. At one time "The Village Blacksmith" was a standard recitation piece among schoolchildren; try it out for storytime and see if Longfellow's sonorous, rolling verse can win today’s kids over. (I bet yes.)

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

(2) K-3 Illustrated by John Holyfield. In 1837, Lewis, who was born into slavery, became the first African American blacksmith in Chattanooga, Tennessee--and he didn't stop working until he was able to buy the freedom of all his family members. Hubbard's straightforward yet lyrical narrative is effectively illuminated with descriptive passages. Rendered in smoothly textured acrylics, Holyfield's art, with its characteristically elongated images, dramatically conveys a sense of passion and purpose. Bib.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2018

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Anna Rich. A young enslaved African American boy, the son of a blacksmith, listens to the rhythms his father hammers out and learns them for himself; when his father falls ill, he pounds out the rhythms himself--an important job since, as this picture book (dubiously) speculates, it's to help runaway slaves on their journey to freedom. Dark oil paintings add emotion and suspense.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Tim Zeltner. In the 1830s, blacksmith John Deere revolutionized farming in the Midwest with a new plow made of steel. Zeltner's luminous, undulating landscapes and elongated figures, created using acrylic on plywood with a crackled finish, add a moody depth and period feel to the biography's folksy telling. Additional facts in the back matter provide context. Bib., glos.

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(2) 4-6 Apprentice blacksmith Sand finds himself in the Sundered Castle--so called because everything is broken in two. Sand begins mending things; when he finds the corpse of Perrotte, a princess, he straightens her limbs, restoring her to life. Subtle parallels to "Sleeping Beauty" are omnipresent, but Sand and Perrotte's work of restoring the castle and avenging old wrongs takes its own, novel course.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2014

(4) 4-6 Brightstone Saga series. Mikal's sister is sure she'll get picked to be a magical apprentice, but it's eleven-year-old blacksmith-in-training Mikal who is whisked away to study with the sorcerers' Guild of Constant Working. He finds himself apprenticed to a wizard embroiled in a dangerous scheme. Thompson's fantasy world is well realized--hopefully, characters will be better fleshed out in the next book.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Leo Dillon & Diane Dillon. In 1725 Mali, Dinga the Blacksmith calls upon the Mother Elements to help him raise his boy, Mustafa. When Mustafa disappears, Wind, with help from Earth, Fire, and Water, travels to a blacksmith shop in Charleston, South Carolina, where Mustafa has been enslaved. The Dillons' rousing illustrations--at once bold, complex, and lucid--impart dramatic conviction to McKissack's free-verse text.

Reviewer: Barbara Bader | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2011

(2) 4-6 Colonial Craftsmen series. Welcome reissues of Fisher's series of abbreviated picture-book histories detail the work performed by professionals and craftspeople during the colonial period. Each volume is illustrated with strong, informative, distinctive scratchboard drawings. The Blacksmiths, The Printers, and The Wigmakers contain glossaries. Ind.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.