Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
Precious
Unavailable
Precious
Unavailable
Precious
Audiobook5 hours

Precious

Written by Sapphire

Narrated by Bahni Turpin

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

An electrifying first novel that shocks by its language, its circumstances, and its brutal honesty, Push recounts a young black street-girl's horrendous and redemptive journey through a Harlem inferno. For Precious Jones, 16 and pregnant with her father's child, miraculous hope appears and the world begins to open up for her when a courageous, determined teacher bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary.


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 20, 2009
ISBN9781415967188
Unavailable
Precious

Related to Precious

Related audiobooks

General Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Precious

Rating: 3.8297665012645914 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,028 ratings101 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In a tone swollen with pain, anger, desperation, frustration, and—ultimately—determination, Sapphire tells the story of Precious Jones, a Black teenage girl growing up in Harlem with an evil, violent mother and a “father” who rapes her repeatedly, resulting in the birth of her two children. Somehow Precious manages to escape her home and find salvation at an alternative school and a halfway house. This novel, written from the semiliterate perspective of Precious herself, is difficult to read—partly because of the nonstandard spelling and usage (which improve as Precious develops her reading and writing skills) and partly because of the brutal, grim reality that her life represents. Through sheer resolve to create a better life for herself and her children, Precious finds beauty and poetry in her world and—we imagine—peace.Precious’ narrative ends rather abruptly, with implied but ambiguous hope for her future. The novel itself concludes with a series of poems written by Precious along with memoirs written by three of her classmates, whose stories are equally intense and horrific, demonstrating that Precious’ plight is by no means unique.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Clareece Precious Jones narrates her life of abuse and redemption.Oh my. This was an extremely difficult book to read. The raw language, brutality and just plain ugliness is very heart-wrenching. I was in the position of knitted brows and open mouth throughout most of the book due to its shock value. It was very difficult to grasp the cruelty. What I liked was that I really wanted to know what was going to happen to Precious, so I kept turning those pages. However, I'm not so sure I want to see the movie anymore - too much hardship and very disturbing. I don't think I'm interested in watching what I read.Originally posted on: Thoughts of Joy
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A lot has been said about this book since it was published in 1996, but I'm only picking it up now. It's the story of Sapphire, a sixteen-year-old African American girl, and her coming of age in Harlem. Written from the first person perspective, the text is the speech and thoughts of an illiterate young girl. Her colorful speech depicts a life full of the worst life can dish out. But Sapphire perseveres and, with the help of a dedicated young teacher, determines her own path out of her miserable childhood.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    3.5 stars

    Push was difficult to read because of the subject matter and the way it was written. I believe the author wanted us to think like Precious and the words were written how she spoke. She had a horrendous childhood and her parents were disgusting, vile human beings. Instead of crumbling under the abuse, I really admired how Precious fought to make her life better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Personal response: I didn't think I would like this. I watched the movie first, not by my own accord. I couldn't imagine that anything Oprah would recommend would be anything that I might like. I admit I was wrong. This led me to read the book. Fantastic, and full of raw reality and emotion. I had problems with the 'authentic' nature of the speech at first, but as I got past this I found it to be an intricate part of the book. I also struggled with Precious' writing abilities as we saw what she had written in her journal. This element reminded me of a modern day Helen Keller. Teen readercurricular connections:Sociological study of the urban environmentHealth educationGreat example of the importance of strong reading and writing skills
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Brutal, honest, brilliant.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Sixteen year old Claireece Precious Jones is suspended from school because she is pregnant with her second child. The public school system has failed her by leaving her illiterate. Her family has failed her by emotionally, physically, and sexually abusing her on a daily basis. She frequently daydreams to escape her grim reality. Her life turns around after she meets a teacher at an alternative school who believes in her and recognizes the injustice of her situation. Ms. Rain teaches her more than the ABCs. She teaches Precious self-expression and the meaning of love.

    The gritty story is at times difficult to read because of its graphic depictions of Precious's abuse as well as the various levels of dialect that is employed to serve as her voice. The struggle on the part of the reader adds a dimension of empathy that makes the story seem ever-more real.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Claireece Precious Jones, who goes by her middle name, is a sixteen-year-old black girl in Harlem kicked out of school when she becomes pregnant by her father for the second time. When a teacher suggests she looks into an alternative school, Precious meets a teacher who believes in her and friends who also have difficult pasts.The book is written in first person dialect by Precious, who is just learning to read and write so I felt like the character's voice was in my head talking to me. Some of the things that happen to her are horrible and graphic, and definitely let anyone know who may have a trigger with sexual abuse. However, her story is powerfully told and sadly believable. The ending might drive some people crazy, but I found it hopeful without being a fairy tale ending.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I hadn't seen the movie before reading this book. I'm uncertain what the author's purpose was in telling this story. If it was to horrify everyone with the abuses this young woman suffered at the hands of both her parents, and the school and social services systems, then this book does that. If it was intended to be inspirational, it does not succeed.

    The book was very unsatisfying in it's conclusion. We are left wondering if Precious beat the overwhelming odds and finished her GED, moving on to college and making a life for her and her son, or if she succumbed to remain a victim of the society and just another statistic.

    Written as a journal by Precious, it is at times difficult to read due to Precious' illiteracy. It is a short book, so does not take much time to read, but I would not recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Push is the verbally graphic story of an abused child named Precious Jones. Precious bears her father's babies first at age 12 and again at age 16. Suffering physical, verbal and sexual abuse by both parents and serving as a virtual slave to her apartment-bound, welfare-dependent mother, Precious lives in hopeless isolation in Harlem. At 16, Precious is struggling through public school until expelled for being pregnant, although her principal does set her up to enter an alternative school. At Each One, Teach One, Precious meets other troubled girls and they are buoyed by a devoted teacher - Miss Blue Rain - who teaches them to read and write.

    Written in the fractured vernacular of this sub-literate teenager, Push — the poet Sapphire's debut novel — is an effective novel. Precious' phonetic dialect and stunted vocabulary add authenticity to her saga and help this hard-luck story grab the reader with its poetic beauty. Push resonates with ugly truths. "I'm alive inside", she writes after attending a meeting of incest survivors, whose confessions are a balm to her shame. "A bird is my heart. Mama and Daddy is not win. I'm winning."

    It is stirring to see Precious test the wings of her newfound verbal powers, funny to decode her botched locutions (like "insect" survivors), and sad to watch her revert to frustrated illiteracy when, after progressing by leaps and bounds, she's thrown a tragic, unexpected curveball. Ultimately, however, Precious gains control of her life through writing ("the boat [that:] carry you to the other side") and finds her heroes (Langston Hughes and Alice Walker among them) through books.

    Push is an affecting combination of childlike tenderness and adult rage and leaves little doubt that Sapphire's talents as a poet translate artfully into her fiction.

    I rate this novel 4 stars.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Uh-oh... I thought this was going to be an inspirational book about a sad and abused New Yorker who went on to make something of herself. Instead, it was filled to the brim with disgusting details of child rape and abuse. The writing was horrid and I think having an illiterate main character is a really tricky way for a crappy author to write a crappy book.

    Boo.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was very powerful read. I was shocked about the differences between the book and the movie, but the book feels more "real" than the movie did. I also feel like the characters were more in your face in the book which makes it a much more interesting read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Incredible story of Precious Jones and how she survives and overcomes her wretched life of physical and sexual abuse by her parents and the invisibility of her existence to others who could have and should have helped her escape that life. At 16, she has been kicked out of school for being pregnant--for the second time--by her father. She starts attending an alternative school in Harlem, and with the love and support from teachers and friends made there, she not only learns to read and write, but to find herself.I almost stopped reading this book just a few pages into it. It was too uncomfortable. It made me angry and sad at the unfairness of life. But this is a book of getting beyond the unfairness and just dealing with it the best way you can. You can't change what life has dealt you in the past, you just have to push forward.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. She has two children by her father, who also gives her HIV. She gets sent to an alternative school where she learn to read, write, accept her life and move on. Recounted in disjointed, phonetic language. Very powerful, but violent, graphic and quite disturbing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow, the abuse Precious suffers until she finds a teacher that cares.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Heart wrenching. One of my favorite books, but I could only read it once, very emtionally intense
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My first review on goodreads and I couldn't have chosen a more difficult book. Precious - both the book and the character - portray abuse and survival in a very honest and real way. Seldom have I read a book of this kind that can instantly transport me into the mind of the character so completely. The emotional impact of some scenes felt like a punch to the gut and left me feeling bruised and raw. It took me about half a chapter to get into the style of the book which is written very much as if Precious is telling us the story herself, complete with incorrect spelling and colloquialisms, but this ultimately made my journey with the book all that more real. I was Precious' friend, her confidant. She did not dress her life up in pretty words to make it more accessible. It was just her story and she was telling the story to me so I could maybe one day tell her story for her.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a quick read but certainly not an easy read. It really angers me to no end reading what was done to this poor girl. Abuse from so early on from BOTH parents. I am not sure I liked the style in which it was written, the misspellings was at times hard to read. The language is crude to say the least but fits with the mind of Precious and her surroundings.The ending was for me abrupt, I was expecting a bit more of tellling how she got to where she is today. I am thankful that she was able to overcome her terrible beginnings and fly like a bird.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Precious Jones has suffered a life of horrible abuse and poverty until, sixteen and pregnant for the second time with her father's child, she is enrolled in a special school where she learns how to tell her own story through reading and writing and finds the courage to live her own life. I was impressed by the way in which the author manages to make her protagonist's dialect-heavy, semi-literate voice not only readable but individual and strong. On other aspects of the book, my feelings were much more mixed. Different parts of my brain seemed have have widely differing attitudes towards it, which culminated in an odd sort of internal dialog. I think the best thing I can do as far as reviewing the book goes is to reproduce that dialog here. So:BRAIN SEGMENT ONE: Oh, god, that poor kid! What horrible things to read about. But it is all pretty moving. When she started standing up for herself, I wanted to cheer! Also I really like the way the story recognizes the value of knowledge and learning and the importance of education to society. It was sort of heart-warming.BRAIN SEGMENT TWO: The book definitely has some strengths. But, eh... Don't you think it's all a little overdone? The girl isn't just abused and poor. She's subject to every horror the author could think of, every worst-case consequence... It felt emotionally manipulative.ONE: Oh, come on! You know that, horrible as it is to think about, there are plenty of real children who've suffered that much and worse. Isn't calling the bad stuff that happens in this book too much to believe kind of an insult to them?TWO: Hey, do not try to guilt-trip me here! Of course I know that. But a work of literature, as we both know, has to do more than just describe things that really happen or say something socially important to be successful. It has to make the reader feel it, make them believe it. And I'm not sure this book is quite artful enough to pull that off completely.ONE: I don't know. I think you may be letting your own biases about this particular kind of literature affect your judgment.TWO: It's true, I generally tend to be leery of "inspirational" stories. In my mind, "inspirational" tends to equate to "over-earnest, over-sentimental, and over-simplistic." And the "troubled teenager turns life around with the loving attention of a good teacher" plot is definitely a subtype of those. Going in with that in my head may well mean that I kept myself a little too distanced from the story and failed to give it quite as much of a chance as it deserves.ONE: Which makes me wonder why you decided to read the thing in the first place. I mean, you knew what it was about when you bought it. I don't think it's hype from the movie; you're not usually easily influenced by that sort of thing.TWO: Yeah, I don't know, either. There was just something about the description that was weirdly compelling.ONE: I think there's also something about the book that's compelling.TWO: I don't know. Maybe.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Since I knew the story pretty well before reading the book, I was surprised to be as moved as I was. Precious never had a chance - never - until she finds the alternative school, and then we learn that her time remains limited, that her chance may come far too late. (Of course it came far too late for her physical and emotional well-being, didn't it? She'll never be able to get rid of those angry dark clouds and the scars of lightning strikes; she'll always have known too much far too young.) If this book is a call to action, it is a strange one, because the other young women Precious meets at school make it clear that her story is so common - at the same time you want to help people in these bad, ugly situations, you are aware that there are so many others like them, that the bureaucracy makes it so hard to get them what they need even when you are lucky enough to be able to identify it. Every legislator who talks about cutting AFDC funds and other programs to help the truly needs should be forced to read this book over and over until he or she understands why and how these things happen.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is not a favorite of mine, but the story was well thought out and put together. It was a little disturbing. The book was good but not something I would consider a must read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Harsh, but gripping. As far as story, tragic, and simultaneously uplifting.As a comparison to the film, better than the film, but the film has merit as well, and works well as a companion piece.As far as writing style goes, fantastic, and I can't help but compare it to Flowers for Algernon.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I never saw the movie, but what a book . . . just gives you a sinking feeling inside because you know this kind of thing happens every day and people just turn a blind eye. But also wants to make you cheer for Precious and her bravery and perseverance.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    beautiful and distubing tale of a young girl in harlem trying to make better life for herself and her child.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not a book i could read straight through, too upsetting. But a wonderful book that brings to home life after abuse.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There are few books that move me in a way that this one did. it is so eye opening and REAL to so many young children out there. I did watch the movie a while back, but like any reader, the book, I feel is so much better. I loved the end of the book where the stories of the girls are added. You really only get a glimps in to who they are, so with the stories provided, you can see even deeper into their lives.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Push by Sapphire is the story of an impoverished, traumatized, illiterate seventeen year old African-American girl named Precious Jones who overcomes so many obstacles in trying to turn her horrid life around. I mean srsly in this book it's one bad thing after another, with maybe a handful of good things that happen.To be quite honest, I'm still on the fence about this. Now, I know I probably should have enjoyed this a lot more than I did, but it made me so uncomfortable. I understand that was probably the point so the reader is somewhat shocked out of their assumptions, but I can't help that I felt a little bit... icky after some parts. Alright, so here's the thing, you find out on like the first page that Precious is the mother of two children, and you find out she didn't get a choice in the matter, but then okay the book goes into her desiring sex from her rapist. I'm sorry that's gross. We all have our lines, and well, that's my line. Maybe she had Stockholm Syndrome, but again, that's something I find very hard to read and accept.However, I did like the dialect, I felt it really reflect someone who isn't educated and is illiterate. The dialect writing helped the story feel more real. Real-ness, or rather, authenticity in a story is important to me, and certain things occured in this story that I just couldn't believe, I mean it felt like I was riding the tragedy train. And here's the thing, I understand what happens to Precious is the sort of thing which happens probably every single day in America, but it's so hard for me to wrap my mind around. That said, Push is a quick, gripping read, and while we are on tragedy train, there is a beacon of hope throughout the book, despite everything, and that beacon is education. Words will set one free and bring you away from suffering. I tend to agree with this, as education is likely to bring you further in life than dropping out. The writing is provocative and feels true, as it's told in stream of consciousness.For example:"Sometimes I wanna tell Ms. Rain shut up with all the IZM stuff. But she my teacher so I don't tell her to shut up. I don't know what "realism" mean but I do know what REALITY is and it's a mutherfucker, lemme tell you." -pg. 83Also, there is this quote which I felt to be problematic, but perhaps reflective of unfortunate societal attitudes about skin color and desirability."Ms. Rain say write our fantasy of ourselves. How we would be if life was perfect. I tell you one thing right now, I would be light skinned, thereby treated right and loved by boyz. Light eve more important than being skinny; you see them light-skinned girls that's big an' fat, they got boyfriends." - pg. 113 and this"Don't nobody want me. Don't nobody need me. I know who I am. I know who they say I am--vampire sucking the system's blood. Ugly black grease to be wipe away, punish, kilt, changed finded a job for.I wanna say I am somebody. I wanna say it on subway, TV, movie, LOUD. I see the pink faces in suits look over top of my head. I watch myself disappear in their eyes, their tesses[tests:]. I talk loud bust still I don't exist." -pg. 31Utterly heartbreaking. Precious Jones is not a character I will forget easily, I don't regret reading Push, however, it did leave me feeling incredibly uncomfortable. This is neither a good nor bad thing. It is what it is.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Push is a great novel for many reasons, one being because of the perspective it provides. It gives a look into illiteracy (for the literate people reading the book), and it shows the battle Precious fought every day. I think this also enlightens many students to the fact that illiteracy is not always an indictment of the person, but also the system in which they are failing. Push gives us a perspective that we rarely see in society, and that is the perspective of the illiterate and uneducated. Precious changes that, though, and she provides an inspirational and emotional story that many people struggle through, but high school students would certainly be able to gain from such a perspective.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Sapphire's moving words take readers alongside the life of Precious; the story, however, speaks to universal themes and stories across the country of injustice, pain, and the educational system. This book was required for a teaching class at Michigan State and I was extremely glad we read it. As educators, we can learn much from seeing Precious's losses and victories within her schooling. Although I wouldn't recommend this book for use in a high school classroom, I would strongly encourage teachers everywhere, especially English teachers, to pick this up.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Heartbreaking. Almost torturous to read what poor Precious has been through and the injustice of life.