Broken Axel, Dead Oxen...O the Oregon Trail

Who hasn't played Oregon Trail? Trying to get your wagon across the country to the great beyond while not getting typhoid, avoiding rattle snakes, and not letting your damn oxen die. The great migration west is a solely American event. Never before has something like this happened and it was such a climatic, engaging era. The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis Holt was recommended to me by my Materials for Youth teacher as a good juvenile/YA historical fiction book. I love the pioneering point in our history, so I was excited for this book. 

Amos is the son of a dowser, a person who can find water with a stick. Jake, his father, rejected his gift of dowsing and instead pursued his love of trapping leaving his infant son with his brother and his sister-in-law. Amos grows up with these two and gets to see Jake once a year, but always dreads Jake might take him from his adopted mother. Tragedy strikes and eventually Jake comes for Amos, but with him he has a new wife, Blue Owl, a Shoshone woman. Amos and his little family move around a lot, but eventually decide to join one of Jake's friends to work on a wagon train going to Oregon City. The trail is an adventure with new experiences, new people, and tragedy. It is on this journey that Amos goes from being a boy to becoming a man.

This book begins before the birth of the main character, Amos. It is an epic of sorts, showing the growth and main events of Amos and other characters' lives. It is hard to give a brief summary of this book because so much happens and it's the story of family and a boy's life. I was surprised because I expected this to be mainly about the Oregon Trail journey, but it was about Amos and his growth. It was really well done. The story about the Oregon Trail was more about the everyday: what they did, how they found their way, and the people in the train. I don't feel I can do justice to the story.

Amos is a creative boy. He has gifts, he is kind, and even though he has seen hard times, he has prospered. He is a great main character and the other characters carry a lot of weight too. They are tangible and add to the tale. Every character is important and has a very defined personality from Jake, the gentle overly talkative mountain man to Blue Owl, a quiet, earthy, wise woman to Amos's Aunt and Uncle, two people who make a brilliantly happy pair, and all the characters met on the Trail.

The Oregon Trail part of the story did not begin until about half way through the book. I kept waiting for that part to start because this novel was marketed to me as an Oregon Trail book. I thought it was a great detailed and well put together story, but I was thrown off by the amount of non-Oregon writing. Still a book I would certainly recommend and that was a great story.

If you are into the Oregon Trail, this era, or pioneering then try the Laura Ingles Wilder Little House on the Prairie series. I loved these books as a child and they're a great source for what life was like at that time.