The Canning Season

The Canning Season is a novel for teen readers by Polly Horvath about one strange and eventful summer. Thirteen-year-old Ratchet lives with her single mother, who unexpectedly sends her off to stay with Penpen and Tilly, elderly twin relatives she has never met. The two women live at Glen Rosa, a remote, rambling house on the coast of Maine surrounded by woods where bears roam. Penpen is drawn to Zen Buddhism and Tilly is fond of a drink, and both are given to telling long, outrageous stories about the family's past. Soon another stray arrives: Harper, a sullen girl who has been left at Glen Rosa by mistake. As the summer wears on, Ratchet begins to find a sense of home she has never had. Darkly funny and unpredictable, the book is about family, kindness and belonging. It won the 2003 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.