Prentice Alvin is the third book in the Alvin Maker series, probably one of Card's best series. It's probably not the best of the series, but it's still a good read.

The book starts out with side events that will become important to the rest of the story. A young slave girl escapes her master, who has fathered a child on her. She dies shortly thereafter, but her son is adopted by a white family, the innkeeper and his wife in Hatrack River, the town where Alvin was born and will shortly return to as apprentice to the blacksmith.

Peggy, the torch who assisted at Alvin's birth and has helped to keep him alive since then, looks into her own future and does not like what she sees - a loveless marriage to Alvin. So she flees, determined to find a way to change that future.

Alvin arrives in town and sets to work as the blacksmith's apprentice. Even without using his Maker's knack, he proves to have a great deal of skill as a blacksmith.

Alvin deals with a lot of problems as an apprentice. He seems mouthy to a dowser - quite natural since the Unmaker has been using water to try to destroy Alvin, but when Alvin knows that the dowser marks a spot for the blacksmith's well that just won't work, he makes an enemy. Alvin also helps rescue the adopted black boy mentioned above from slave finders, who have come to return him to his rightful owner.

Peggy returns to town disguised as Miss Larner, a teacher, and helps teach Alvin both regular knowledge and about his gift, as best she can.

Overall, you'll enjoy this book better, but it's probably not the strongest book of the series.