Push

Rating:
Summary: Push
Review: It brings you to a world and you don't want to leave. Sapphire doesn't sugar-coat anything which brings it so close to home for us. It's real and it's thought envoking.

Rating:
Summary: Raw and Real
Review: This book puts you in the front seat of Precious's life and you feel EVERYTHING this girl feels. Sapphire's technique gets you inside the head of this young innocent girl and MAKES you understand her and what she thinks and why she thinks that way. Raunchy language and raw lyrics push this book through to a beautiful and thorough ending.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: Sapphire's PUSH broke my heart. I read the book for my feminist book club, and I was one of the few who actually finished it--the others were too put off the brutal reality of Precious' life. I made myself read it because I KNOW there are women in this world who suffer fates as bad as--or worse than--that of Precious Jones. It's an ideal eye-opener for White, middle-class suburbia.

Rating:
Summary: Intense.... Strong.... Powerful
Review: This book is sooo deep. The story is soo strong. I strongly recommend it but not to the weak.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ
Review: I really loved this book. It does have parts that are heart gripping but it is interesting from beginning to end. You will not be able to put it down. It is a very quick read because it captures your attention so quickly. It does give the true meaning of PUSH.

Rating:
Summary: God Help the Children
Review: I often use this book in my writing classes to demonstrate the power of words to save. Most of my students report that they read it in one sitting after reading the first line. Some, a very small group, report that they were too afraid to read on after the first line and so put the book down and read the alternative selection. I have noted that in the class discussions that follow, the second group (who claim they could not read it) always participate with as much passion as the group that did read. Draw your own conclusions, but for my part I believe a great many more people have read this powerful book than will admit it. It is difficult for some, however, to admit to having read (and enjoyed) a book that so graphically describes the most brutish forms of child abuse and incest. To admit to reading this book, for some, is an indictment by association. Imagine someone saying, "I just read a great book about someone who was eaten by a cannibal. The writing is wonderful. You can almost feel the teeth sinking into your flesh. At the end when the victim dies, it's almost like you have died, too. It's just great."

This book is great, but it disturbs in the same way that Schindler's List does. The ugly truth is still ugly, and God help the children for whom it is true.

Rating:
Summary: Push
Review: Many people will be turned off by the explicit details of what happens to the main character, but in doing so, Sapphire gets the job done. Fortunately, many of us will never really know what so many children have to go through while we continue to live our happy, ignorantly blissful lives. This novel gives us just a taste of how lucky some people are not. It's a wake up call with a loud irritating ringer. Just think: if READING about such a life makes you turn your head---makes you want to close the book---maybe your head has been spending too much time in the clouds. Maybe it's time to really know how unperfect, unfair, and cruel this world can be.

Precious Jones, the main character, decides to learn how to read and write even though she was born submerged in an environment where literacy isn't exactly a priority. It is through her tenacity that I find myself pushing past some of my own problems (which really pale in comparison to the plight of Precious) in order to reach many of my goals. My "obstacles" cease being a threat, and my "challenges" lose some of their bite because I know that I don't have it as bad as others do, many of whom succeed anyway.

Thank you, Sapphire, for the paradign shift and wake-up call.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing but good
Review: This book is not an easy read. The words are simple but the content is tough. The book gives an accurate, detailed, disturbing account of sexual and physical abuse and the consequences of it. It also shows how difficult it is to help someone who has been victimized so. Precious has a tremendous chip on her shoulder, very understandable considering what she had been through, yet that very anger also kept her from almsot receiving the help she needed. Also, Precious mistrusted white people, yet the people who were abusing her were black. The ending is not the greatest, it seemed as if the author didn't really know how to end, but the story is very good, although extremely disturbing.

Rating:
Summary: kinda disturbing
Review: i don't know what to say about this particular book. It was a hard read, given the fact that it was written EXACTLY how the character was supposed to have been speaking, and the fact that her father was so terrible as was her mother, it made it hard to continue. However there was a certain feeling you got as you read that made you want to know the outcome of this troubled girls' life. Like i said ............kinda disturbing.

Rating:
Summary: Sad but true!
Review: This book is a must read, its sad but it tells the truth. I really could not put it down for one minute. YOU GOT TO READ IT!