Far Flutterby Read online

  Far Flutterby

  To Donald, my very own prince charming

  Kelsey, my bright sunshine

  Tyler, my favorite song

  Sean, my smiley boy

  Josh, my gentle giant

  EJ, my chosen one

  Austin, my miracle child

  And to God Almighty, who has—for now—blessed me with these.

  —K. K.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Begin Reading

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Share Your Thoughts

  Begin Reading

  One day in the town of Better-than-Brown,

  Cody the Caterpillar crawled on the ground.

  Eating and inching his way through the day,

  his spirits were low and the heavens were gray.

  “I wonder,” he said, as he inched up a tree,

  “if there’s more to this life than just branches and leaves.”

  Then right at that moment a bird came along,

  Beulah Lee Bird with a beautiful song.

  “I’m from the land of Far Flutterby

  where God has good plans for his creatures to fly!

  These plans include you, so have faith and you’ll see!”

  Then Beulah Lee Bird flew off joyfully.

  Cody the Caterpillar called as she left,

  “Come back here and tell me!

  Please don’t make me guess!”

  For what sort of plans could become or begin

  for a lowly land rover with prickly skin?

  See, all around Cody the caterpillars ate.

  They ate and they ate

  and they ate and they ate.

  “Boring,” said Cody, “this life isn’t grand.

  I need to find Far Flutterby, that great land!”

  So he crawled up the tree and

  he squirmed to the top,

  and what he saw there made

  his wiggly heart stop.

  Then, just as he glimpsed

  that remarkable place,

  A windy windstorm

  knocked him

  flat on his face.

  But when he looked up Cody saw a great sight,

  a magnificent creature soaring in flight.

  “Who,” Cody asked, “and just what kind are you?

  Where did you come from so pretty and new?”

  “My name,” she exclaimed, “is Franny McFly.

  I come from the land of Far Flutterby

  where brown becomes blue and yellow and gold,

  where life is a daydream that never grows old.”

  “Further,” said Franny, “you really should go.

  It’s God’s plan for you, and I think you should know,

  there’s more to this life than crawling and eating,

  more to this life than sitting and sleeping.

  “You need to be patient; you need to hold on.

  You’ll find a way there!” And with that she was gone.

  Eager to travel to Far Flutterby,

  Cody needed some wings;

  he needed to fly.

  So he strapped on some leaves

  and he jumped all around

  but his flight sent him

  spiraling back down

  to the ground.

  There in a heap he thought life can be tricky,

  upside down, sideways, and pokey and prickly.

  Still he held on to hope because that’s what he’d heard

  from Franny McFly and Beulah Lee Bird.

  “Okay,” Cody said, “if there really are plans

  for me to find more than I have in this land,

  when will it happen and how will I know?

  ‘Cause here I’m still boring, still wrinkly, still slow.”

  But the very next day Cody had a strange feeling.

  It made him feel dizzy

  and wobbly and reeling.

  Spinning and spinning

  by sun and by moon,

  until he was wrapped in a sticky cocoon.

  He hung upside down in the shade of a leaf

  and that’s where he stayed for nearly three weeks.

  All hope was lost, he was downer-than-down,

  stuck there forever in Better-than-Brown.

  Until one sunny day

  he awoke with a start,

  and something shot straight through

  his wiggly heart.

  “I CAN’T GIVE UP HOPE.

  I HAVE TO BELIEVE,”

  Cody shouted and shook

  from his head to his knees.

  Then he wriggled and squiggled and jiggled about,

  juggling and buggling for any way out.

  He was so very stuck, he was sweaty and sore,

  for nothing had ever been this hard before.

  But that’s when poor

  Cody remembered the words

  of Franny McFly and Beulah Lee Bird.

  “God’s plans are good,

  so have faith and you’ll see!”

  Then he struggled …

  and struggled …

  … and finally broke free!

  Now something was different; the heavens were blue

  and Cody’s old body was bursting brand new.

  He stretched,

  and he flexed,

  and he shook out the crinkles.

  He felt so much lighter without

  all the wrinkles.

  He looked round behind him

  and there of all things

  were beautiful, bountiful, wondrous …

  WINGS!

  Cody fluttered his wings and he flew off the ground,

  and his flight took him high above Better-than-Brown.

  His struggle had placed him in Far Flutterby,

  and Cody was now a bright, new butterfly!

  With colors of blue and yellow and gold,

  Cody’s wonderful life now would never grow old.

  For these were God’s plans just as good as the word

  of Franny McFly and Beulah Lee Bird.

  Cody called to his friends,

  as he dipped and he soared,

  “Have faith through the hard

  times, believing in more!

  For there in the journey

  and stuck in the sting,

  the struggle …

  the struggle …

  is what gives you wings!”

  ZONDERKIDZ

  Far Flutterby

  Copyright © 2011 by Karen Kingsbury

  Illustrations © 2011 by Jennifer A. Bell

  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 © JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 978-0-310-42389-8

  Requests for information should be addressed to:

  Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kingsbury, Karen.

  Far Flutterby / written by Karen Kingsbury; illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Cody the caterpillar is unhappy being stuck on the ground, but with encouragement from Beulah Lee Bird and Franny McFly he follows God’s plan for him and strives to reach a place called Far Flutterby.

&nbs
p; ISBN 978-0-310-71213-8

  [1. Stories in rhyme 2. Caterpillars—Fiction. 3. Metamorphosis—Fiction. 4. Butterflies—Fiction. 5. Christian life—Fiction.] I. Bell, Jennifer A., ill. II. Title PZ.3.K6145Far 2012

  [E]—dc22 2010016481

  * * *

  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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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.

  Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.

  Editor: Barbara Herndon

  Interior & cover design: Cindy Davis

  * * *

  11 12 13 14 15 /LPC/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  About the Publisher

  Founded in 1931, Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Zondervan, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers, is the leading international Christian communications company, producing best-selling Bibles, books, new media products, a growing line of gift products and award-winning children’s products. The world’s largest Bible publisher, Zondervan (www.zondervan.com) holds exclusive publishing rights to the New International Version of the Bible and has distributed more than 150 million copies worldwide. It is also one of the top Christian publishers in the world, selling its award-winning books through Christian retailers, general market bookstores, mass merchandisers, specialty retailers, and the Internet. Zondervan has received a total of 68 Gold Medallion awards for its books, more than any other publisher.

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  Karen Kingsbury, Far Flutterby

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