First Fruits [Import] [Hardcover]

Penelope Evans (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 387 pages
• Publisher: Magna Large Print Books; Large Print Ed edition (September 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750518863
• ISBN-13: 978-0750518864
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Fruits by Penelope Evans, July 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: First Fruits (Hardcover)

Kate Carr at 14 lives in Scotland with her father, a preacher of the old puritan school. She is a lucky girl, the center of attention. We hope our own children can be like her. Not much scope for a good read here.... Not so.

Penelope Evans brilliantly recreates parallels with our own school day memories. Schools are the same the world over. There are people we recognize and perhaps still know. But no one will comfortably admit to being at this school.

Children can be manipulative and deceitful. Evans does not take the easy option of brutish teenage behaviour. Small pleasant acts can have great significance.

Why is Kate thinking and behaving like this? Somewhere there is a story of a lost past which is tantalizingly close to the surface. It comes with such power the reader is left stunned.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chilling Story, May 27, 2004

By 

Margaux Paschke - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First Fruits (Hardcover)

My review doesn't ruin anything for the potential reader: At first glance, the protagonist's (Kate) life seems perfect and the reader assumes her gripes are the usual teenage angst. As you read on you discover the subtle creepy undertone becomes more and more ominous and real. Being the constant center of attention isn't all it's cracked up to be - as Kate shows us. Her fundamentalist preacher father and bitter grandmother are the mak'ins of one scary a** family. Kate's grandmother is especially chilling once you discover what is REALLY going on. The fact that this novelist does not resort to a tabloid description but rather, uses subtle hints and slow reveal of the true nature of this family made it all the more frightening for me. There are so many layers and issues to this story which makes it a true work of art - I consider it a modern masterpiece. The whole novel is a mystery - the circumstances leading to Kate's crippled leg, the mother's disappearance and so on......Nothing is as it appears to be which includes Kate herself. The issues of religion, being a "good mother" or person for that matter, sex, concept of beauty, being part of the "in" crowd, self-confidence, manipulation, and love are all touched in this story. The end was a little too pat for me but didn't ruin the overall beauty of the storytelling. This work made me want to read everything else written by this author. No heavy handed writing or fad sensationalism here, just a pure gem regarding a heavy and disturbing subject.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars FRIST FRUITS, February 1, 2003

By 

DevJohn01 (Somerset, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Fruits (Hardcover)

I just finished reading `FRIST FRUITS' by Penelope Evans and I think that I must have been reading a completely different book that most of the other reviewers. While I did enjoy this book it was certainly not what I would describe as bone chilling. Slightly disturbing maybe, sad definitely, but bone chilling absolutely not, nor did I find fourteen year old Kate Carr to be remotely evil. Quite the opposite in fact; I believe that Kate is an average teenager who thinks the world of her extremely egotistical and very much disturbed father. Keith Carr is Kate's fanatically religious father who preaches one thing but practices something completely different, and unfortunately Kate believes everything he has taught her and is left to deal with what happens as all her beliefs are slowly stripped away from her.
I really don't want to give too much of this book away, but it is almost impossible to write a proper review without doing so. However, I will say that although this book is primarily about Kate what disturbed me the most were the actions of her father who always believed that there was a "lesson" to be taught and his very unorthodox methods of teaching them. If in purchasing this book you are expecting a book frightening enough to keep you up at night this is not it. But if you are looking for something that explores the psychological effects that growing up in a household such as Kate's has on an adolescent girl this is the book for you.