Utah has banned its 37th book from all of the state’s public schools, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Schools in Utah will now be required to remove Push, the debut novel by Sapphire, from its classrooms and libraries.
Sapphire’s novel, published in 1996 by Knopf, follows Clareece Precious Jones, a Harlem teenager who is repeatedly raped by her father; she has had one of his children and is pregnant with another one. The novel formed the basis for the 2009 film Precious, directed by Lee Daniels, starring Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique. The movie earned six Oscar nominations, with Mo’Nique winning the best supporting actress award for her performance as Precious’ mother, Mary Lee Johnston, and Geoffrey Fletcher earning the best adapted screenplay award.
Like the 36 books banned before it, Push was removed under Utah’s law H.B. 29, which mandates that a book will be automatically banned from schools statewide if it is banned by three of the state’s more than 40 public school districts or by two of the districts as well as five charter schools.
Utah banned its 36th book, Stephen King’s Different Seasons, last month. Other books that have been removed from the state’s public schools include Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
