The Canning Season — Polly Horvath

National Book Award Winner: “[A] hilarious, heartrending tale of two unwanted children left with a pair of eccentric old ladies.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

One night out of the blue, Ratchet Clark's ill-natured mother announces that Ratchet will be leaving their Pensacola apartment immediately to take the train up north. There she will spend the summer with her twin great aunts Penpen and Tilly, who couldn't look more different from each other. Staying at their secluded house in Maine, Ratchet is treated to a passel of strange family history and local lore, along with heaps of generosity and care that she's never experienced before.

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 Tilly's 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 . . .

“Alternately dark and humorous,” The Canning Season is a winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature from the acclaimed author of the Newbery Honor book Everything on a Waffle (Chicago Tribune).

“Unruly, unpredictable and utterly compelling.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Readers are in for a wise and wacky ride.” -- School Library Journal (starred review)