ALA Booklist (Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2018)

It is believed that blacksmiths would hammer out coded messages of escape for enslaved people fleeing north on the Underground Railroad. We learn here that these messages had a rhythm that told "listening ears and hearts that the waiting is nearly over." Told from the perspective of a blacksmith's son, this story has a watchful heaviness to it, like the weight of the hammer falling on an anvil, or the weight of anticipation and vigilance with which the slaves lived constantly. A shadowy color palette situates the narrative in the twilight and moonlit hours, perfectly complementing the suspense of the plot. Sophisticated readers will appreciate the irony in the blacksmith's final act of resistance: forging a gate for the master while tapping out an escape rhythm. When his father falls sick, it is up to the boy to take his place at the anvil, until the time comes for his family to make its own escape. Ending on a hopeful note, the book brings this piece of hidden history to life.

Horn Book

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.

Kirkus Reviews

A historical picture book posits the question: what if blacksmiths used their hammers to communicate with runaways on the Underground Railroad?When the African-American narrator wakes to find Pa sick but still at the forge (slaves didn't get sick days), the child is worried Pa won't be well enough to hammer out vital information to travelers on the Underground Railroad that night, "sending word to the folks in the woods, who are waiting to hear when it's time to leave." Wondering when their family will run, the child is comforted by Ma with one word—"Soon"—and an affectionate embrace, the pair backlit by the warm glow of a fire. The child's anxious impatience is fascinating—it's a familiar trope of childhood placed within the harsh realities of American slavery. Rich's oil paintings evoke a sense of time and place, portraying various depictions of slave life. Later, when Pa doesn't have the strength to pound out his blacksmith's song, the child (who's practiced the rhythm, tapping it out on the henhouse, dancing to it, etc., throughout the story) must take up the hammer. Then finally! It's time for the family to run. Though believing a sick man could successfully run away requires some suspension of contemporary disbelief, the core of the story is completely credible: the ingenuity of communication among slaves and their intense commitment to freedom.An intriguing new angle on an important story. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-9)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

An enslaved nine-year-old boy narrates this tense fictional story about the Underground Railroad. His father, the plantation-s blacksmith, uses his hammer and anvil as a signal: -Tonight he is sending word to the folks in the woods, who are waiting to hear when it-s time to leave.- In an author-s note, Van Steenwyk (How Kate Warne Saved President Lincoln) acknowledges that -there are many theories about how might have communicated with each other, but little evidence to support these beliefs,- so it-s unclear what, if any, historical basis the story has. When his father falls ill, the boy steps in to -send the message to those... who are waiting to hear the blacksmith-s song.- Rich (Under the Night Sky) heightens the stakes through the cinematic lighting of her dramatic, thickly daubed oil paintings-a strong sense of danger is ever present, both in scenes of opulent dinners and parties and in daring moonlit escapes. Despite the story-s uncertain historical underpinnings, it-s a plausible, powerful vision of ingenuity and daring in action. Ages 6-10. Author-s agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary. (Feb.)