For this outside reading bog I'm reading The Canning Season by Polly Horvath. I think it's a pretty good book ( it received a national book award), but I think the front cover illustration is a little creepy looking. The book is about a girl who goes to live with her great-second cousins because her mom sends her. The main character's name is Ratchet (sounds to me like a hardware tool). At first Ratchet really does not want to go. The author writes, "I'm going where?" Ratchet gasped." But, as she gets to know her great-second cousins (she calls them her aunts), Ratchet really enjoys her stay.