Precious (Push Movie Tie-In) (96) by Sapphire [Paperback (2009)]

by Sapphire

Precious (Push Movie Tie-In) (96) by Sapphire [Paperback (2009)]

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

Published January 1, 2009

About the author

Sapphire the Author.

Sapphire is the author of Push, American Dreams, The Kid, and Black Wings & Blind Angels.

Push: A novel, won the Book-of-the-Month Club’s Stephen Crane award for First Fiction, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s First Novelist Award, and in Great Britain, the Mind Book of the Year Award. Named by the Village Voice and Time Out New York as one of the top ten books of 1996, Push was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work of Fiction. Push was adapted into the Oscar winning film, Precious.

Sapphire’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Black Scholar, Spin, and Bomb. In February of 2007 Arizona State University presented PUSHing Boundaries, PUSHing Art: A Symposium on the Works of Sapphire. Sapphire's poetry has appeared in the following anthologies: Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Grabbed: Poets & Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment & Healing, and New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent. Sapphire’s work has been translated into over a dozen languages and has been adapted for stage in the United States and Europe.

An excerpt from Sapphire's novel in progress, "The Harlem Trilogy," and a new poem, "Poem Found in Scientific American," along with an online interview can be found in the January 2024 issue of Torch Literary Arts:
https://www.torchliteraryarts.org/pos...

For more information, visit:
https://linktr.ee/sapphiretheauthor

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is horrific and important at the same time.

[Shelley Slade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This dang book. I have not thought of anything but this book for the last five days. It made me furious and made me sick. I wanted to throw up so many times, I lost count. There are very few books that I want to read, become "brain kidnapped” by, and a tiny part of me wishes I hadn’t read it… but this is one of those books. The reality of it smacks you straight in the face, and then backhands you before you can recover from the last blow. I had always wanted to watch the movie, but had only seen a clip, and really didn’t want the character of Precious’ mother to taint my appreciation for the actress Monique. I know she did justice to the character, but it’s such an awful, wicked character, and I wasn’t ready for that much "rotten.” I saw the movie on a streaming channel and made a vow to read the book first. Lord. I wish I could undo everything this character Precious and kids like her endure. Every case worker, teacher, social worker, lawyer, parent, principal, scout leader, or anyone who works for or with children needs to read this. Be warned: the language is extremely explicit. If you have a weak stomach about sexual situations, this may not be the book you need to read, but the story is absolutely one that everyone should hear.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

To say that this book is difficult to read is an understatement. It is heavy, explicit, and heartbreaking. The author’s candor is not for the sake of being gratuitous as the story of Precious is as authentic as it gets. Do not read if you are unable to face the unflinching reality of a child that spends her entire existence contending with poverty and all forms of abuse.

[Gabriela Pantoja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to read with audio as the writing is from a teen girl that can’t read or write much but as the events that happen in this book as horrific I’m glad it was written to show that everyone has a story and we need to help those that need help in any way we can and hear them out and not judge.
Loved the stories at the end as I wanted to know about their stories too.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have rated this as a five, but I felt the flow of the story just got skipped and it happened several times. The storyline was definitely an eye-opener for when you meet people, you never truly know their background.

[Jeji -.- · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was hard to read, but she made it that way for kids who were going through things like Precious. And for kids to be thankful for what they have. I am very thankful.

[Nyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Precious as a character is just someone that you 100% root for. You want to see them blossom into who they want to be.
Such a hard read but an important one.

[Brandi Eddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy!

[Ashli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very hard and emotional read.

[Maribel De Robles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just too sad. Some people shouldn’t be parents.