Ninety four year - old Mama Harris is a dynamo of a baker.  She also happens to be the Great-Grandmother of Southern Pines youngsters Thomas and Joshua Mandell.  Her knack for frying pies - the old Southern way - has inspired all of west Georgia and these two kids from right here with her ability to fry hundreds of pies on a weekly basis.  She hands them out all over town and has for many years. One day Thomas announced the need to write a book about Mama Harris, considering she is quite a character.

 

That's when Thomas's dad, Richard, stepped in to answer his Son's call. Not one to ever back down from a task that needed to get done, Richard got cracking on a children's book that captured not only the essence of Mama Harris but also the Southern tradition of fried pies. That's when Mama Harris' Fried Pie Army was born. 

 

The story starts as the townspeople of Josh, Georgia are preparing for the Brementon Day Parade.  They all hope the Governor of Georgia will stop by but have no idea of how to make that happen. Oblivious to parade preparations, Mama Harris is busy frying pies.  On the other side of town, a bank robbery erupts.  A stray squirrel, a souped-up Mustang convertible, and an Army of Fried Pies converge at once to send the town into a tailspin.

 

Mama Harris' Fried Pie Army is illustrated by another Southern Pines local, Miss Laurel Holden.  She is a 2007 graduate of Pinecrest High School and is currently enrolled at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont.  The book is now available for $15.95 at The Country Bookshop or can be ordered at www.MamaHarrisFriedPies.com. Published by JHM Children's Books (an imprint of T. Eliot Press), Mama Harris' Fried Pie Army is a forty-four page long hardcover book in full color.  It measures 8.5" x 11".