The Canning Season

About this book

Love under trying circumstances One night out of the blue Ratchet Clarks ill-natured mother tells her that Ratchet will be leaving their Pensacola apartment momentarily to take the train up north. There she will spend the summer with her aged relatives Penpen and Tilly inseparable twins who couldnt look more different from each other. Staying at their secluded house Ratchet is treated to a passel of strange family history and local lore along with heaps of generosity and care that she has never experienced before. Also Penpen has recently espoused a new philosophy whatever shows up on your doorstep you have to let in. Through thick wilderness down forgotten bear-ridden roads come a variety of characters drawn to Penpen and Tillys open door. It is with vast reservations that the cautious Tilly allows these unwelcome guests in. But it turns out that unwelcome guests may bring the greatest gifts. By turns dark and humorous Polly Horvath offers adolescent readers enough quirky characters and outrageous situations to leave them reeling! The Canning Season is the winner of the 2003 National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature.