Lois Gladys Leppard

Lois Gladys Leppard (1924 – October 5, 2008) was the author of The Mandie Series of children's novels. Leppard wrote her first Mandie story when she was only eleven and a half years old, but did not become a professional author until she was an adult. Leppard has also worked as a professional singer, actress, and playwright. She studied at the New York School of Music and the Voice Beautiful Institute in New York. At one time, she and her two sisters, Sybil and Louise, formed a singing group called the Larke Sisters.

As of 2004 there were forty Mandie books. The eponymous heroine lives in North Carolina in the early 1900s and encounters adventure and solves mysteries with help from her friends, family, and pet cat, Snowball. These young reader novels are meant to teach morals as well as be fun and captivating stories to read. Leppard promises that her books contain "nothing occult or vulgar", and Mandie is depicted as a faithful Christian. The Mandie books often deal with issues of discrimination and prejudice relating to race (particularly with regard to the local Cherokee), class, and disability.

Lois Gladys Leppard is said to have based some of her Mandie Books relating to her Mother's past.