Leaving (28 page)

1. What emotions does the word
   leaving
   stir in your heart? Explain.
   
2. Do you know anyone who’s planning to leave soon? Tell whether they are leaving home or the area or a job … Tell about that person and what you have observed in this, their season of leaving.
   
3. What did you learn about leaving by reading this book?
   
4. Has anything in this story changed the way you view the idea of leaving? Explain.
   
5. Talk about a special memory you had while growing up.
   
6. Who from your childhood made the most impact on you? Why?
   
7. There is a cost to pursuing dreams. What dreams did you have when you were growing up?
   
8. What sacrifice did you make to accomplish your dreams? Talk about that.
   
9. Tell about someone you know who sacrificed for their dreams. What were the results of that sacrifice?
   
10. What have you left along the journey of life? Was leaving that place or person the right choice? Why or why not?
    
11. If you’re new to the Baxter family, you may not know about Ashley and Landon. But from what you do know, what are your thoughts about the love this married couple shares?
    
12. Do you know anyone whose life was touched by the tragedy of 9–11? Explain.
    
13. Explain Bailey’s attitude toward fame. Do you think her attitude is healthy? Why or why not?
    
14. Brandon is a new Christian in Hollywood. Why do you think it is difficult for Christians to maintain their faith while living in the limelight?
    
15. What do you think of our nation’s fascination with celebrity? How is it a distraction to God’s will for us?
    

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. 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!

The Above the Line Series follows two dedicated Hollywood producers as they seek to transform the culture through the power of film.

Available in stores and online!

One Tuesday Morning

Karen Kingsbury

The last thing Jake Bryan knew was the roar 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

Karen Kingsbury

Winner of the Silver
Medallion Book Award

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, the questions from Jamie’s curious young daughter, and the words from her dead husband’s journal can move Jamie beyond one Tuesday morning … toward life.

Shades of Blue

Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author

A fairy-tale future. A Checkered past. 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!

Even Now

Karen Kingsbury

Sometimes hope for the future is found in the ashes of yesterday.

A young woman seeking answers to her heart’s deepest questions. A man and woman driven apart by lies and years of separation … who have never forgotten each other.

With hallmark tenderness and power, Karen Kingsbury weaves a tapestry of lives, losses, love, and faith — and the miracle of resurrection.

Ever After

Karen Kingsbury

2007 Christian Book of the Year

Two couples torn apart — one by war between countries, and one by a war within.

In this moving sequel to
Even Now,
Emily Anderson, now twenty, meets the man who changes everything for her: Army reservist Justin Baker. Their tender relationship, founded on a mutual faith in God and nurtured by their trust and love for each other, proves to be a shining inspiration to everyone they know, especially Emily’s reunited birth parents.

But Lauren and Shane still struggle to move past their opposing beliefs about war, politics, and faith. When tragedy strikes, can they set aside their opposing views so that love — God’s love — might win, no matter how great the odds?

Available in stores and online!