'Push' Censored: Sapphire's Novel Pulled From South Carolina Schools After Parents Complain

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After several complaints from parents, school leaders have pulled a national bestseller novel from middle schools shelves after determining it's content to be inappropriate for students. The book Push, for which the 2009 movie Precious is based off of, is no longer available at middle schools across Horry County.

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Comments

[GraceNotes]

10:51 AM on 03/02/2011

I just looked, and South Carolina has the 13th highest rate of teen births in the nation. Horry and Spartanburg counties have rates that are higher than the state and national averages. Last year, SC received a $20 million grant to combat this problem. I wonder if the books might have been purchased as a part of the grant?

[Jareda]

04:32 PM on 03/01/2011

As someone who's not a fan of censorship, I have to say - the violent rape and molestation, among other things depicted in this novel are not necessarily middle-school reading material. Middle school starts as low as 5th and 6th grade - I would certainly be concerned about banning this text in a high school.

[LisaLisa1234]

07:22 PM on 03/01/2011

My thoughts exactly.

[ConcernedCtzn]

08:35 PM on 03/01/2011

I have to agree. I read the book years ago and I never saw the movie because I knew it was too much for me...and I'm an avid reader of James Patterson's Alex Cross series.

[GraceNotes]

10:31 AM on 03/02/2011

Did you know that Patterson also has two series of books geared to teens and young adults, Angel Experiment and Maximum Ride? I would never expect to see his Alex Cross books in a middle school library, but I would expect to see the books for that age group on the shelves.