Jonathan Henderson's
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book: Precious
In 1987, obese, illiterate, black 16-year-old Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) lives in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem with her dysfunctional family; she has been raped and impregnated twice by her father, Carl, and suffers constant physical and mental abuse from her unemployed mother, Mary (Mo'Nique). The family resides in a Section 8 tenement and subsists on welfare. Her first child, known only as "Mongo" (short for "Mongoloid"), has Down Syndrome and is being cared for by Precious's grandmother.
After Precious becomes pregnant for the second time, she is suspended from school. Her junior high school principal, Mrs. Lichtenstein (Nealla Gordon) arranges to have her attend an alternative school, which she hopes can help Precious change her life's direction. Precious fights to find a way out of her traumatic daily existence through imagination and fantasy. While she is being raped by her father, she looks at the ceiling and imagines herself in a music video shoot; in the video, she is the superstar and the focus of attention. While looking in photo albums, she imagines the pictures talking to her (the picture of her mother tells her she is a bitch, and other fantasies are ruined by the appearance of her mother, as well).
When she looks in the mirror, she sees a pretty, white, thin, blonde girl. In her mind there is another world, one in which, unlike her real one, she is loved and appreciated.
Inspired by her new teacher Ms. Rain, (Paula Patton), Precious begins learning to read. Precious begins to see a social worker Mrs. Weiss, (Mariah Carrey), who learns about the incest in the household when Precious blurts "my father give me a baby".
She gives birth to her second child and names him Abdul. After Precious's mother deliberately drops three-day-old Abdul and hits Precious, Precious fights back. They destroy most of the apartment and the TV, the only entertainment in the entire apartment. Precious flees the apartment with the baby, and almost has the TV dropped on her from the top of the stairs.
Desperate to get out of the cold, she breaks into her classroom and is found there in the morning by Ms. Rain. After briefly accommodating Precious and son in her own flat which she shares with her lesbian lover, the teacher finds assistance for Precious and she begins raising her son in a half-way house while she continues academically.
At a meeting with her social worker, Precious asks her "What color are you anyway, you some type of black or spanish?" she replies, "What color do you think I am?", and while she allows Precious to ponder this, she offers to buy her an orange soda. While at the vending machine, the young girl steals her case file. Precious recounts the details of the file to her fellow students and has a new lease on life.
A few days later at the halfway house, Precious's mother comes to inform her that her father has died of AIDS. She asks her if she will come home and Precious simply leaves.
Later at school Precious informs the class she is HIV positive but her baby isn't. She has a breakdown and begins to say how horrible her life is and how unloved she is. Ms. Rain tells her that her baby loves her, and that she loves her.
Precious and her mother see each other for the last time in Mrs. Weiss' office, where the she asks Mary about the abuse Precious has had to endure. Mary tells her that she treats Precious the way she does because she feels that her husband would rather have sex with Precious than her, and this breaks her heart. The social worker looks in disgust, and Precious gets up with the baby and tells her mother she will never see her again, and she leaves.
Precious makes plans to take a General Educational Development test, and continues to live in the Half-way home.
