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The Stream: Discovery (The Stream #1)

by Bill Jones Jr. (Goodreads Author)

4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 · rating details · 14 ratings · 9 reviews

Charlie Patterson is an exceptionally bright, twelve-year-old boy, with no close friends. He spends most weekends in the company of his great-grandfather, G'pa Joe, and most weekdays trying his best to be invisible. This year, however, promises to be different. This year, all of Charlie's dreams will begin to come true - in more ways than he had hoped.

Charlie's entire summ...more

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Published September 19th 2011 (first published September 16th 2011)

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Dec 01, 2011 Benjamin Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Time for another book review and, like most that I have reviewed, this one is quite wonderful.

The Stream: Discovery, the first in a trilogy by Bill Jones, Jr., is the story about a 12 year old boy named Charlie who, in a nutshell, starts having these dreams which eventually start coming true. In these dreams he's drawn to a young girl named Robin who he has never met before who merely watches him in the dreams, never saying anything.

Charlie spends most of his time around his G'pa Joe and the inh...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Jason Beineke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Things start off for young Charlie as a typically strange dream about school. First there’s the school bus and it is filled with its own weirdness and flying toenails (ick). Then there’s the pretty girl whose face he can’t quite see. More strange dreams happen and hefinally gets to meet the pretty girl…in real life.

Her name is Robin and she has been sharing Charlie’s dreams, has been from the opposite side of the country, even before she moved to Charlie’s town. Now they are in the same school...more Things start off for young Charlie as a typically strange dream about school. First there’s the school bus and it is filled with its own weirdness and flying toenails (ick). Then there’s the pretty girl whose face he can’t quite see. More strange dreams happen and hefinally gets to meet the pretty girl…in real life.

Her name is Robin and she has been sharing Charlie’s dreams, has been from the opposite side of the country, even before she moved to Charlie’s town. Now they are in the same school and finding that they are not only drawn together by each other’s smiles (he with oft-commented upon dimples) during their waking hours, but also by their shared bravery and abilities in their dreams. The two have set their feet into the depths of the Stream, navigating the strange and twisting world of dreams, shaping them and fighting the malingering powers that dwell in the Stream and which would suck them dry.

Bill Jones, Jr., does an excellent job with this book, painting subtleties of description and action. The biggest joy for myself was the dialogue, not only between Charlie and Robin, but also between the two halves of Charlie’s internal dialogue, the left-brain, logical Chuck and the right-brain, emotional Charlene (yes, Charlene).

Charlie is a hyper-intelligent, introverted child of 11 who is bored in school, happily spacing out in class and pretty much acing his tests without trying too hard. There are the terrifying navigations of middle school, though, including girls and bullies (sometimes they are one and the same), spiteful teachers turned bus drivers and insulting gym coaches.

Mr. Jones also does a fine job of navigating Charlie’s emotions as the youth deals with his budding friendship with Robin, at first being held at arm’s length, but then being allowed closer into her trust and comfort zone. Together, the two form a powerful team within the Stream as they confront strange creatures, dragons, an evil Overlord who is using the sleeping minds of children as psychic batteries and endangering those whom Charlie loves.

Mr. Jones also explores a variety of other experiences relating to other persons in this book, including Charlie’s great-grandfather, warmly nicknamed G’Pa Joe, who fled the sharecropping life in Alabama as a teenager and eventually joined the Army and fought in World War II. G’Pa Joe’s dearest friend in the rest home is Mary, falling to senility, dreaming of things that were and might have been and faced by horrid dangers in her dreaming world. Old Toot, a shiftless vagabond and former friend of Joe’s, now extremely aged and living on the streets as a homeless man, manages to touch the children’s heart in a surprising manner. And a part of G’Pa Joe’s personality is captured by the evil Overlord.

There will be historical mentions that many youths will not get at first, but I hope that they endeavor to do their own research and learn about the history that took place before their time, such as World War II, zoot suits, sharecropping, Haigt-Asbury and more.

The Stream also presents us with two children of mixed racial heritage and they find themselves to be just two more young people in a sea of mixed colors, their mixed races just a part of what is natural around them, which I found very comforting. Both children are proud of the heritage that they have received from parents and grandparents. Sadly, both are dealing with family troubles as Robin is recovering from the loss of her older sister and a father whose brief description will fill many with dread. For Charlie, he sees a portion of his beloved great-grandfather’s personality taken away from him and at the same time his parents are fighting and his father has moved out of the house.

Another thing I will mention here is the learning experience that Charlie undergoes during the course of this book. He has a sharp, analytical mind, and that is part of his problem. He is too analytical and finds difficulty in letting go of the tight structure that his mind adheres to, needing instead to learn the flow and sweep of active imagination. He struggles to overcome these barriers while Robin easily meshes with the soft physics of the Stream. Still, Robin has need of Charlie and one cannot fulfill their goals without the other. As part of learning to let his mind go, he comes to the realization that some of his peers, whom he had pigeon-holed and stereotyped, are different than he has always imagined. He starts to learn to open up and see people for what they really are and discovers that those whom he never thought he would like or get along with, are showing themselves as allies and budding friends.

The most magical parts of this book were the visits to Robin of her deceased sister, who is coping very well with death, thank you very much. She has taken on the role of guardian angel and partial guide to her sister and Charlie. And she approves of the growing bond between the two, even giving an interesting glimpse of the future the two might well share… The best part about Reyna is that when she appears in the book, there really does seem to be something magical and uplifting that leaps off of the page and enwraps a person in warm fuzziness. Despite this, though, there remains the question of how, exactly, she and her father died. What was happening when they died, what lay at the bottom of it all, was it truly an accident…?

All in all, a truly delightful read and highly recommended for both girls and boys. There is nothing overtly dark and gruesome in the book, but subtle layer upon subtle layer of growth, acceptance, the desire to help and love others and all presented without having it smacked upside the reader’s head.
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Jan 14, 2012 Samantha Leighanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: review-requests, 2012-reads, reviewed-books

**I received this book from the author in exchange for a completely honest review.**

I liked this book, quite a bit. I admit that it did take me a little bit to get into it, but after Charlie and Robin met and things started happening with G'pa Joe, that's when it got really interesting.

One of the things that I loved about this book was the attention to detail, the dreams described were really vivid, I had no trouble at all envisioning the creatures or the settings, and that was one of the great...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Lucy Barton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not my usual type of book, I offered to read it to give my opinion.

It took a little while to get into, I was a little confused at first but boy, am I glad that I persevered!! I was totally there with Charlie and Robin on their adventures. G'pa Joe locked into alzheimer's and Robins deceased sister adding to the suspense. I read it in one sitting - and now I am going to have to buy Awakening to find out what happens next!!

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Jun 14, 2012 Bruce Hodge rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oo. This guys a good writer. Off beat action, compelling reading, the plot leads you by the nose through some interesting twists and turns, the characters leap between the real and fantasy worlds effortlessly, this book blends fantasy and adventure really well. Definitely worth looking at.

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Sep 22, 2011 Bill Jr. added it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: wrote

I loved it, but I wrote it.

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Mar 15, 2012 Alica Mckenna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: loved-it

The Stream – Discovery is a wonderful story. It is rich and full of great characters. This is not a book to rush through, you need to savoir the lyrical language and get lost in the images Bill Jones Jr creates. Don’t dismiss this as another YA book written for teens, the journey Charlie and Robin go on is exciting and as an adult I was fully captivated.

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Jun 27, 2012 Shannon LC Cate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Keep Bill Jones on your radar. His concepts, characters and plotting are amazing. The edition I read of this book needed an edit for stream-lined language, but so does every early draft of everything ever written. Notwithstanding, the material was a refreshing look at the world from perspectives all too commonly sidelined in the mainstream publishing realm.

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Oct 04, 2011 Bill Jr. added it · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: wrote

If I gave it 5 stars, would you believe me?

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Shelves: owned-kindle, dustbuster-challenge

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About Bill Jones Jr.

Bill Jones, Jr. was certain he would be a photographer when he grew up. From age 12, he could be found bicycling through the streets of Hampton, Virginia, camera in hand. Already a voracious reader, at age ten, he was exposed to the poetry of Nikki Giovanni and the fiction of Jack London and Madeleine L’Engle. The writing bug was born.

Bill has published his Contemporary Fantasy trilogy, The Stream...more

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The Stream: Discovery (The Stream #1)

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