I am unable to put your books down, and I plan to read many more of them. What a wonderful spiritual message I find in each one!
Rhonda T.
I love the way Karen Kingsbury writes, and the topics she chooses to write about! Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us, your readers!
Barbara S.
My husband is equally hooked on your books. It is a family affair for us now! Can’t wait for the next one.
Angie
I can’t even begin to tell you what your books mean to me…. Thank you for your wonderful books and the way they touch my life again and again.
Martje L.
Every time our school buys your next new book, everybody goes crazy trying to read it first!
Roxanne
Recently I made an effort to find GOOD Christian writers, and I’ve hit the jackpot with Karen Kingsbury!
Linda
When Karen Kingsbury calls her books “Life-Changing Fiction™,” she’s merely telling the unvarnished truth. I’m still sorting through the changes in my life that have come from reading just a few of her books!
Robert M.
I must admit that I wish I was a much slower reader … or you were a much faster writer. Either way, I can’t seem to get enough of Karen Kingsbury’s books!
Jillian B.
I was offered $50 one time in the airport for the fourth book in the Redemption Series. The lady’s husband just couldn’t understand why I wasn’t interested in selling it. Through sharing Karen’s books with my friends, many have decided that contemporary Christian fiction is the next best thing to the Bible. Thank you so much, Karen. It is truly a God-thing that you write the way you do.
Sue Ellen H.
Karen Kingsbury’s books have made me see things in ways that I had never thought about before. I have to force myself to put them down and come up for air!
Tabitha H.
I have read many of Karen’s books and I cry with every one. I feel like I actually know the people in the story, and my heart goes out to all of them when something happens!
Kathy N.
Wow, what an amazing author Karen Kingsbury is! Her stories are so heart-wrenching … I can’t wait until the next book comes out…. Karen, please don’t ever lay your pen down.
Nancy T.
Karen Kingsbury’s words leap off the page…. I just finished a new series last night and once again she has touched me beyond compare!
Kendra S.
Other Life-Changing Fiction™ by Karen Kingsbury
Bailey Flanigan Series
Leaving
Learning
Longing (Fall 2011)
Loving (Spring 2012)
9/11 Series
One Tuesday Morning
Beyond Tuesday Morning
Remember Tuesday Morning
Lost Love Series
Even Now
Ever After
Above the Line Series
Above the Line: Take One
Above the Line: Take Two
Above the Line: Take Three
Above the Line: Take Four
Stand-Alone Titles
Oceans Apart
Between Sundays
This Side of Heaven
When Joy Came to Stay
On Every Side
Divine
Like Dandelion Dust
Where Yesterday Lives
Shades of Blue
Unlocked
Redemption Series
Redemption
Remember
Return
Rejoice
Reunion
Firstborn Series
Fame
Forgiven
Found
Family
Forever
Sunrise Series
Sunrise
Summer
Someday
Sunset
Red Glove Series
Gideon’s Gift
Maggie’s Miracle
Sarah’s Song
Hannah’s Hope
Forever Faithful Series
Waiting for Morning
Moment of Weakness
Halfway to Forever
Women of Faith Fiction Series
A Time to Dance
A Time to Embrace
Cody Gunner Series
A Thousand Tomorrows
Just Beyond the Clouds
This Side of Heaven
Children’s Titles
Let Me Hold You Longer
Let’s Go on a Mommy Date
We Believe in Christmas
Let’s Have a Daddy Day
The Princess and the Three Knights
Go Ahead and Dream
Far Flutterby (Fall 2011)
Miracle Collections
A Treasury of Christmas Miracles
A Treasury of Miracles for Women
A Treasury of Miracles for Teens
A Treasury of Miracles for Friends
A Treasury of Adoption Miracles Miracles — a Devotional
Gift Books
Stay Close Little Girl
Be Safe Little Boy
Forever Young: Ten Gifts of Faith for the Graduate
www.KarenKingsbury.com
FOREVER IN FICTION®
FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS NOW, I’VE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF offering Forever in Fiction ®* as an auction item at fundraisers across the country. Most of my more recent books have had Forever in Fiction characters, and I love that you, my reader friends, look forward to reading this section to see which characters in the coming pages are actually inspired by real-life people.
In Learning, I bring you three very special Forever in Fiction characters — all of whom are friends with my character Betty Keller. Betty offers her home as a place for Bailey Flanigan to live while she’s in New York City, and Betty’s three friends are part of her weekly summer Bible study. Each brings their own unique personality, likes, and strengths to the study — creating a rich context from which Bailey is able to learn much. And learning is the whole point of this chapter in Bailey’s life.
The first of Betty Keller’s three friends is my auction winner — Barbara Owens. Barbara won the Forever in Fiction package at the Owasso Community Resources Benefit Auction in April, 2009. A beautiful woman known by her friends and family as being friendly and orderly, passionate and giving, Barbara is also the CEO of her own company. No one ever forgets Barbara’s smile, or the way she helps those in need. She is married with three children and seven grandchildren, and she likes to decorate, sew, cross-stitch, and spend time with her family. Barbara, I hope that you enjoy seeing your name here in Learning, and that in years to come you and your family will be touched when they read about your character here, Forever in Fiction.
The second of my Forever in Fiction winners won the Crossings Christian School Auction in March, 2009. She chose to name her mother Maria “Irma” Rangel as a character in my Forever in Fiction program. Irma has been married more than fifty years to Al, and together they have four daughters and five grandchildren. The family loves to gather around Irma at any get-together, where she’s often the silliest one in the mix. She loves telling jokes and laughing, and she is loving and loyal to all people — especially her family.
Irma retired from working on an assembly line and she lives a simple, quiet life. People easily recognize the petite Irma for her high cheekbones, olive-toned skin, and full smile — features that make her extremely beautiful, especially in her younger days. Irma, I am certain you and your daughter will smile when you read about yourself here in Learning, where you will be Forever in Fiction.
Finally, the third winner is Laura Rogers, who won the Simmons Cooper Cancer Institute Auction in October, 2009. Laura chose to honor her mother Sara Quillian, who died at the age of seventy-three. Sara was married for more than fifty years, and together she and her husband raised five children and enjoyed seven grandchildren. Sara was a trailblazer for her time, and worked as the first female editor of her university news
paper. She went to law school for a year, just to prove she could. She was an intelligent woman, always in the middle of all things social.
Sara constantly opened her house to the friends of her kids, or Campus Crusades workers. She also frequently hosted missionaries in her home and her pastor and his wife, for dinner. Sara was opinionated in her love for God, church, family, and a good conversation. She liked iced coffee and she loved a new pair of red shoes. Laura, I hope that you smile when you see your mother as a character here in Learning, and that you will forever be touched by the way she has been honored here, Forever in Fiction.
A special thanks to all three of my auction winners and your belief in the power of story. I pray that the donations you made to your respective charities will go on to change lives, the way I pray lives will be changed by the impact of the message in Learning. May God bless you for your love and generosity.
For those of you who are not familiar with Forever in Fiction, it is my way of involving you, the readers, in my stories, while raising money for charities. The winning bidder of a Forever in Fiction package has the right to have his or her name or the name of a loved one written into one of my novels, forever in fiction.
To date, Forever in Fiction has raised more than $200,000 at charity auctions. Obviously, I am only able to donate a limited number of these each year. For that reason, I have set a fairly high minimum bid on this package so that the maximum funds are raised for charities. All money goes to the charity events. If you are interested in receiving a Forever in Fiction package for your auction, write to
[email protected] and in the subject line write: “Forever in Fiction.”
*Forever in Fiction is a registered trademark owned by Karen Kingsbury.
Preview
BAILEY FLANIGAN SERIES
Leaving
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
The Bailey Flanigan Series begins with Bailey leaving Bloomington for the adventure of a lifetime. She has won an audition for the ensemble of a Broadway musical in New York City. She’s determined to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but is she really ready to leave family and friends for the loneliness of the city? And what of Cody? His disappearance has her worried about their future and praying that their love can survive.
In order to be closer to his mother in jail, Cody takes a coaching job in a small community outside Indianapolis. New friends, distance, and circumstances expose cracks in his relationship with Bailey Flanigan.
Love, loneliness, big opportunities, and even bigger decisions highlight the first book in the new Bailey Flanigan Series that features members of the popular Baxter family and finally completes the Bailey Flanigan/Cody Coleman story.
Available in stores and online!
ABOVE THE LINE SERIES
The four novels of the bestselling Above the Line Series follow dedicated Hollywood producers, as they seek to transform the culture through their film. The books also feature characters from the much-loved Baxter Family. Follow Chase Ryan and Keith Ellison as they journey through the world of moviemaking and learn all that glitters is not gold, and that success could cost them everything — their relationships and their ideals. Each book in the series focuses on a different part of the process and the various struggles they face to reach their goals of making a movie that changes lives.
Available in stores and online!
Unlocked
A Love Story
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
Before You Take a Stand …
You’ve Got to Take a Chance.
Holden Harris is an eighteen-year-old locked in a prison of autism. Despite his quiet ways and quirky behaviors, Holden is very happy and socially normal — on the inside, in a private world all his own. In reality, he is bullied at school by kids who only see that he is very different.
Ella Reynolds is part of the “in” crowd. A cheerleader and star of the high school drama production, her life seems perfect. When she catches Holden listening to her rehearse for the school play, she is drawn to him … the way he is drawn to the music. Then, Ella makes a dramatic discovery — she and Holden were best friends as children.
Frustrated by the way Holden is bullied, and horrified at the indifference of her peers, Ella decides to take a stand against the most privileged and popular kids at school. Including her boyfriend, Jake.
Ella believes miracles can happen in the unlikeliest places, and that just maybe an entire community might celebrate from the sidelines. But will Holden’s praying mother and the efforts of Ella and a cast of theater kids be enough to unlock the prison that contains Holden?
This time, friendship, faith, and the power of a song must be strong enough to open the doors to the miracle Holden needs.
Available in stores and online!
Shades of Blue
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
In between a checkered past and a fairytale future, a decision awaits.
Brad Cutler, twenty-eight, is a rising star at his New York ad agency, about to marry the girl of his dreams. Anyone would agree he has it all — a great career, a beautiful and loving fiancée, and a fairy tale life ahead of him … when memories of a high school girlfriend begin to torment him. Lost innocence and one very difficult choice flood his conscience, and he is no longer sure what the future will bring except for this: He must go back to the shores of Holden Beach in search of his first love, and a forgiveness neither of them has ever known.
Three people must work through the repercussions of a decision made long ago before any of them can look toward a new future.
Available in stores and online!
One Tuesday Morning / Beyond Tuesday Morning Compilation Limited Edition
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
Based on the tragedy of the Twin Towers … two powerful novels of heroism, loss, and redemption that commemorate the 10th anniversary of September 11.
One Tuesday Morning
The last thing Jake Bryan knew was the sound of the World Trade Center collapsing on top of him and his fellow firefighters. The man in the hospital bed remembers nothing. Not rushing with his teammates up the stairway of the south tower to help trapped victims. Not being blasted from the building. And not the woman sitting by his bedside who says she is his wife.
Jamie Bryan will do anything to help her beloved husband regain his memory. But that means helping Jake rediscover the one thing Jamie has never shared with him: his deep faith in God.
Beyond Tuesday Morning
Determined to find meaning in her grief three years after the terrorist attacks on New York City, FDNY widow Jamie Bryan pours her life into volunteer work at a small memorial chapel across from where the Twin Towers once stood. There, unsure and feeling somehow guilty, Jamie opens herself to the possibility of love again.
But, in the face of a staggering revelation, only the persistence of a tenacious man, questions from Jamie’s curious daughter, and words from her dead husband’s journal can move Jamie beyond one Tuesday morning … toward life.
Available in stores and online!
Oceans Apart
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
A riveting story of secret sin and the healing power of forgiveness.
Airline pilot Connor Evans and his wife, Michele, seem to be the perfect couple living what looks like a perfect life. Then a plane goes down in the Pacific Ocean. One of the casualties is Kiahna Siefert, a flight attendant Connor knew well. Too well. Kiahna’s will is very clear: before her seven-year-old son, Max, can be turned over to the state, he must spend the summer with the father he’s never met, the father who doesn’t know he exists: Connor Evans.
Now will the presence of one lonely child and the truth he represents destroy Connor’s family? Or is it possible that healing and hope might come in the shape of a
seven-year-old boy?
Available in stores and online!
ZONDERVAN
Learning
Copyright © 2011 by Karen Kingsbury
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
EPub Edition © MAY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-310-42755-1
This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook.
Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks.
This title is also available in a Zondervan audio edition.
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Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karen Kingsbury.
Learning! / Karen Kingsbury.
p. cm. – (Bailey Flanigan series ; bk. 2)
ISBN 978-0-310-27633-3 (softcover)
1. Title
PS3361.14873L4 2011
813’54–dc22
2011013974
* * *
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.