From the title story — a tall tale of a floppy-eared pie thief who encounters grace in the unlikeliest of places — to poetic reflections on subjects as varied as Spanish moss, growing old, and the ageless stories of the Bible, Mayna Cosby Parks dispenses humor and heart in her debut collection, “Granny Rabbit’s Gooseberry Pie: Stories and Poems” (Courier Publishing, $13.95).

Her book hits a sweet spot with any audience — children, of course, but also adults of all ages.

“My poetic wings are little more than pinfeathers,” the author says, “but when God gives you the desire to write, you must write above your ignorance, and in Him let your soul and spirit, without encumbrance, soar upward toward the light.”

Parks invites the reader to come along for a delightful ride, a journey sweetly redolent of driving to a beloved aunt’s farm, bouncing along a red-clay washboard road in a ’36 Ford, “shimmying, angling like a trotting dog, coils of pink dust boiling out behind.” Her invitation to the reader: “Hop on in!”

“Granny Rabbit’s Gooseberry Pie” is available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers.