This is not a fun story, but it is a powerful story. In Precious's own opinion, there was one single moment that helped to shape her fate more than any other, and it was the moment when she was delivering her first child (the product of her own father's rape), and the paramedics were yelling for her to "Push!" She was 12, and the event, along with the regular pain and trauma of childbirth, stayed with her forever. Precious's superpower is that although she suffers from serious mental health issues throughout the book, she always chooses to keep pushing forward in life, regardless of her obstacles.
This becomes most helpful after she encounters love for the first time at her remedial school. Ms. Rain teaches Precious not only how to read and write, but how valuable it can be to write down how you feel. This revelation launches Precious into poetry writing, and when she finally shares this poetry with the class, she gets public affirmation from them. They're very impressed.
This allows Precious to keep her resolve when she learns the worst news of all. Her father's has died of AIDS, and sure enough, Precious discovers that she also has the disease (because he forceably raped her all the time). However, Precious learns that her motto is immune to this fatal news, because what started as a defense mechanism ("Pushing" through life) has become a full-blown character trait, namely Precious's supernatural sense of poise and power. She is brave enough to face her own death without abandoning her responsibilities. In the face of certain death, she chooses to try and make a better life for her children before she goes—a better legacy than either of her parents could ever hope to attain in their evil state.
