- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition edition (May 11 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0805080201
- ISBN-13: 978-0805080209
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #550,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“An absorbing, atmospheric epic of intertwined lives on America’s western frontier.” –Publishers Weekly, STARRED
“Drawing on such diverse themes as Manifest Destiny, personal identity and cross-cultural relationships, the author has crafted a satisfying all-ages story that hosts a dazzling array of richly realized secondary characters...and flows as effortlessly as the Platte River.”
— Kirkus Reviews, STARRED
"Holt creates a moving, palpable sense of pioneer life in graceful prose that occasionally reads like poetry. And her memorable characters’ stories raise powerful questions about how lives are shaped: by chance, skill, inherited gifts...and love that transcends generations and even mortality. — Booklist
"Holt writes a vivid and beautiful story." —Voya
Product Description
Amos Kincaid is the son of a dowser – a person gifted in knowing how to “find” water deep in the ground. As a young person, Amos doesn’t reveal his gift to others; he’s not sure he wants the burden. But through his experiences growing up and crossing the Oregon Trail, Amos learns about life’s harsh realities, especially the pain in losing loved ones. As he cares for those around him, Amos comes to accept his dowsing fate. This epic novel is a fascinating period piece about the westward expansion and one man’s destiny as he searches for love and family.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Epic American Frontier Life Tale of the 1800s,
By
This review is from: The Water Seeker (Hardcover)
Reason for Reading: I love frontier life western historical fiction and the dowsing aspect caught my eye.It seems strange to call a book with just over 300 pages an epic story but that really is the best way to describe "The Water Seeker". It is the story of a family starting with the meeting of the mother and father and ending with their child married, with his own youngster. The main character is a boy who we meet at birth and he grows to manhood, but for the most part of the book he is a young teen and in a way this is his coming of age story. But even though the boy may be considered the protagonist, his father shares that position equally, plus the story is just as much about the adults who surround the boy and their lives that I often forgot I was reading a YA book. Which makes me recommend the book as much to adults as to teens. Amos Kincaid's father, Jake, is a dowser but he hates the "gift" that was passed down to him from his father and only does it when times are hard. Otherwise he is a trapper and loves the life. Amos' mother died at his birth and he was sent to be raised by his Uncle and Aunt, with his father coming to visit each year for a few months when the trapping season is over. Eventually, the boy grows and the father comes back, with a wife, and they set off with a group going along the Oregon Trail. The story deals with very real life and death. Death much more so and Amos experiences guilt, jealousy, anger, joy, happiness and ultimately love before the journey west is complete. I loved this book, one of the best I've read this month. All the characters are so real. Some are filled with the pioneer spirit and others are bitter over the hardships dealt them in this life. We see how tragedy can break a man to nothing but a shell of his former self and we see how the same tragedy can make another pick herself up and continue on because of her love for life. The book is filled with tragedies, heartbreak, illness and despair. Pioneer life was tough no matter how much spirit you had. But we follow a family made up of unique individuals who rise above each hardship creating a magnificent epic novel. I'd love to see "The Water Seeker" up for some awards this year; it's truly worthy. A great historical.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The pinnacle of author/reader marksmanship.,
By Michael A. Corneiller - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Water Seeker (Audio CD)
Bulls-eye. I am a huge fan of author James Lee Burke and of his favorite reader, Will Patton. To me this combination represents the best literature has to offer.But hold your horses. Although I am six times older than the target audience of this book, I not only thoroughly enjoyed the flawless prose of Kimberly Willis Holt, and the vocal renderings of the KING of audio book readers, Mr. Patton, but would highly recommend THE WATER SEEKER to anyone of any age that enjoys books. The journey taken by young Amos, named after his mother hears a bird cry out that name, is beautifully rendered and I found myself longing for the era brilliantly captured by this remarkable author. It is an era of adventure and newness and innocence as families cope with meager possessions and travel westward with hopes and dreams to make new and better lives. Will Patton has never sounded better and his performance makes this a MUST listen. Read this book, by all means, but if you don't listen to this book, you will miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience two masters at their best. 4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wide-ranging adventure with a little romance mixed in,
By M. Knapp "Maggie Knapp" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Water Seeker (Hardcover)
This sprawling adventure introduces the reader first to Jake (a dowser) and then Jake's son, Amos, who has the water-seeking gift as well. The story covers about 40 years and a lot of sadness and hardship mixed in with historical events, adventure and a romance or two. Set from 1833 to 1859, through the untamed lands from roughly Arkansas to Oregon, Ms. Holt's generous story follows several generations of family and neighbors as they are born, live their interesting lives, and die. I have very much enjoyed Ms. Holt's books for elementary and middle school readers - this is one I'd recommend to 8th or 9th grade readers looking for frontier adventure with depth and breadth and "relationships".
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nope, no cigar,
By Kristin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Water Seeker (Hardcover)
The glowing reviews for this book make me wonder if I read something different from the other reviewers. I found "The Water Seeker" to be uninspired, with characters it was difficult to get to know, or really to care much about. In large part this is due to inexcusably lazy sterotyping in lieu of actual character creation: there is a backwoods husband who's always saying "shoot dang", an escaped slave who says "if you works at it some, da fiddle will sing", and a (presumed to be) stuck up, "refined" girl from England named Gwendolyn Winthrop.There are several passages in the book that could have been heartbreaking, but instead they were merely clumsy and impersonal. I often find simple prose to be the most effective (and affecting) since it strips away unnecessary layers from its meaning, but this only works if the prose itself is packed with meaning and very carefully chosen. The prose in "The Water Seeker" reads more like an impassive cataloguing of events, and when it tries to describe human emotion it reads like it's been written by someone who's never actually experienced those emotions. Dowsing is meant to be a motif or thread running through this story, but it never makes it. Nothing in the story is deeply tied to dowsing, and most of the story could have been the same in plot and impact if it were about someone with any other vocation. Lastly, for historical fiction Holt does a very poor job of bringing history to life. The details of Oregon Trail traveling may be correct, but her characters in the 1830s and 1840s talk and relate to each other like people in the current day would. |
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