"The Kid," by Sapphire. Penguin Books, 384 pages, $26.95 hardcover. This is a book that will make readers flinch. A sequel to Sapphire's 1996 novel, "Push," it opens with the funeral of Precious, that ...

On the very first page of “The Kid,” we learn Precious has died, leaving behind an orphan 9-year-old son, Abdul. Just like that, Sapphire, whose novel “Push” was adapted into one of 2009’s most ...

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Shortly after the publication of her first novel, Push, which told the story of an obese, illiterate, black teenager abused by her mother and raped by her father, Sapphire was informed by a prominent ...

As a teacher in the 1990s, Ramona Lofton saw how learning to read can change a person's life. "It has now been proven that college education is a sure fire way to keep women from returning to the ...