By Sapphire
Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Vintage Contemporaries, c1996, 1997, 2009
Genres: General fiction, urban lit, street lit
ISBN: 9780307474841
Intended audience: Adult
Number of pages: 177 (180 including Reader’s Guide)
Setting: Harlem, Manhattan, NYC
Time period: 1987 – 1989
Plot summary: Sixteen year old, Precious Jones lives an extremely hard life. Born and raised in Harlem, she has been raped by her father and abused by her mother in a variety of ways since she was a small child. She bore her first child at the age of twelve and is pregnant again at the age of sixteen. She is illiterate, obese, and has no friends or self-esteem. Her life changes radically for the better when she is expelled from her traditional school and enters a pre-GED program. Continue reading