First time visiting BookBrowse? Get a free copy of our member's ezine today.

Book Summary and Reviews of The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis Holt

The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis Holt

The Water Seeker

by Kimberly Willis Holt

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • May 2010, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

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.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Holt infuses the American pioneer landscape with a hint of magical realism in this intimate and epic coming-of-age tale. " - Kirkus Reviews

"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

This information about The Water Seeker was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Kimberly Willis Holt

Kimberly Willis Holt is the author of the books in the Piper Reed series, several award-winning novels, including Part of Me; Keeper of the Night; My Louisiana Sky; and When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, which received the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, as well as the picture books Waiting for Gregory and Skinny Brown Dog. She lives with her family in West Texas.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more YA short stories...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: We Solve Murders
    We Solve Murders
    by Richard Osman
    British TV personality and author Richard Osman takes a break from his Thursday Murder Club books ...
  • Book Jacket: The Night Guest
    The Night Guest
    by Hildur Knútsdóttir
    Most mornings, Iðunn wakes up bloodied, bruised, and battered, sometimes missing fingernails. ...
  • Book Jacket: Colored Television
    Colored Television
    by Danzy Senna
    In Danzy Senna's Colored Television, writing professor and author Jane reflects on the advice of ...
  • Book Jacket: The Bookshop
    The Bookshop
    by Evan Friss
    Evan Friss's paean to bookstores, booksellers, and readers, The Bookshop: A History of the American ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    We'll Prescribe You a Cat
    by Syou Ishida

    Discover the bestselling Japanese novel celebrating the healing power of cats.

Book Club Giveaway!
Win Before the Mango Ripens

Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian

Both epic and intimate, this debut announces a brilliant new talent for readers of Imbolo Mbue and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

As D A A D

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.