Autographed, First slipcased edition (Hardback) of Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

The summer Opal and her father, the preacher, move to Naomi, Florida, Opal goes into the Winn-Dixie supermarket and comes out with a dog. A big, ugly, suffering dog with a sterling sense of humor. A dog she dubs Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, the preacher tells Opal ten things about her absent mother, one for each year Opal has been alive. Winn-Dixie is better at making friends than anyone Opal has ever known, and together they meet the local librarian, Miss Franny Block, who once fought off a bear with a copy of War and Peace. They meet Gloria Dump, who is nearly blind but sees with her heart, and Otis, an ex-con who sets the animals in his pet shop loose after hours, then lulls them with his guitar. Opal spends all that sweet summer collecting stories about her new friends, and thinking about her mother. But because of Winn-Dixie or perhaps because she has grown, Opal learns to let go, just a little, and that friendship-and forgiveness-can sneak up on you like a sudden summer storm.

Awards and Recognition

Newbery Honor book
Parents' Choice Gold Award Winner

Candlewick Press
Ages 9-12

First slipcased edition (Hardback)

This item will be available for pick-up at St. Mary's School starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. Pick-up details will be sent once the auction closes.

Autographed, First edition of

"The Summons" by John Grisham

The Summons

Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.

And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.

With the end in sight, Judge Atlee issues a summons for both sons to return home to Clanton, to discuss the details of his estate. It is typed by the Judge himself, on his handsome old stationery, and gives the date and time for Ray and Forrest to appear in his study.

Ray reluctantly heads south, to his hometown, to the place where he grew up, which he prefers now to avoid. But the family meeting does not take place. The Judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret known only to Ray.

And perhaps someone else.

?This item will be available for pick-up at St. Mary's School starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. Pick-up details will be sent once the auction closes.

Autographed, First edition (hardback)

A Painted House by John Grisham

A PAINTED HOUSE
Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers - and two very dangerous men - came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke's world.

A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman ignites forbidden passions. A fatherless baby is born ? and someone has begun furtively painting the bare clapboards of the Chandler farmhouse, slowly, painstakingly, bathing the run-down structure in gleaming white. And as young Luke watches the world around him, he unravels secrets that could shatter lives - and change his family and his town forever?.

This item will be available for pick-up at St. Mary's School starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. Pick-up details will be sent once the auction closes.

Autographed, Hardcover

"Do the Right Thing" by Mike Huckabee

Part campaign memoir, part manifesto, this work from the former governor of Arkansas and star of the Republican party lays out his optimistic vision for America's future.

8-page black & white photo insert.

This item will be available for pick-up at St. Mary's School starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. Pick-up details will be sent once the auction closes.

Autographed, First edition (Hardback)

The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II - The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy by George Weigel

"As March gave way to April in the spring of 2005 and the world kept vigil outside the apostolic palace in Rome, the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, then drawing to a poignant end, was already being described as one of the most consequential in two millennia of Christian history."

With these words, world-renowned author and NBC Vatican analyst George Weigel begins his long-awaited sequel to the international bestseller Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. More than ten years in the making, The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II-The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy tells the dramatic story of the Pope's battle with communism in light of new and recently disclosed information and brings to a close Weigel's landmark portrait of a man who not only left an indelible mark on the Catholic Church, but also changed the course of world history.

When he was elected pope in the fall of 1978, few people had ever heard of the charismatic Karol Wojty3a. But in a very short time he would ignite a revolution of conscience in his native Poland that would ultimately lead to the collapse of European communism and death of the Soviet Union. What even fewer people knew was that the KGB, the Polish Secret Police, and the East German Stasi had been waging a dangerous, decades-long war against Wojty3a and the Vatican itself. Weigel, with unprecedented access to many Soviet-era documents, chronicles John Paul's struggle against the dark forces of communism.

Moreover, Weigel recounts the tumultuous last years of John Paul's life as he dealt with a crippling illness as well as the "new world disorder" and revelations about corruption within the Catholic Church. Weigel's thought-provoking biography of John Paul II concludes with a probing and passionate assessment of a man who lived his life as a witness to hope in service to the Christian ideals he embraced.

This item will be available for pick-up at St. Mary's School starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. Pick-up details will be sent once the auction closes.

Autographed, Hardback

Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear - The Promise of Psalm 23 by Max Lucado

Weary travelers. You've seen them - everything they own crammed into their luggage. Staggering through terminals and hotel lobbies with overstuffed suitcases, trunks, duffels, and backpacks.

Backs ache. Feet burn. Eyelids droop.

We've all seen people like that.

At times, we are people like that - if not with our physical luggage, then at least with our spiritual load.

We all lug loads we were never intended to carry. Fear. Worry. Discontent. No wonder we get so weary. We're worn out from carrying that excess baggage. Wouldn't it be nice to lose some of those bags?

That's the invitation of Max Lucado. With the Twenty-third Psalm as our guide, let's release some of the burdens we were never intended to bear.

Using these verses as a guide, Max Lucado walks us through a helpful inventory of our burdens. May God use this Psalm to remind you to release the burdens you were never meant to bear.

?This item will be available for pick-up at St. Mary's School starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. Pick-up details will be sent once the auction closes.

Autographed, First edition (hardback)

The Best Pet of All by David LaRochelle

Not only does this book autographed by the author, but David LaRochelle drew an image along with his message and signature. This is sure to be a keeper for the family!

Excerpt:

On Monday, I asked my mother if I could have a dog. "No," she said. "Dogs are too messy."

On Tuesday, I asked my mother if I could have a dog. "No," she said. "Dogs are too Loud."

About the book:

But the little boy's mother says he can keep a dragon for a pet -- if he can find one. Enter the coolest -- but naughtiest -- pet ever. The dragon is messier and louder than any dog. And he won't leave. how will the boy ever get a dog now?

David LaRochelle's pitch-perfect story with its tongue-in-cheek humor is ideally suited to Hanako Wakiyama's endearing and sly art, which sports a retro look that's also as snappy as today.

Any child who has ever longed for an animal will relish this irresistible tale of a boy's comical search for the best pet of all.

?This item will be available for pick-up at St. Mary's School starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. Pick-up details will be sent once the auction closes.