The Diamond and the Boy by Hannah Holt

Most people know that diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring mineral and very valuable. For decades they have been marketed as a symbol of love.  Diamonds were formed as a result of both high pressure and high temperature within the Earth's mantle at around 90 to 100 hundred miles below the surface, several billion years ago. They were brought closer to the surface either by deep seated volcanic activity or in subduction zones. These violent volcanic eruptions brought material from the mantle near to the surface in kimberlite pipes, a process that is believed to have happened very quickly.

It is a common misconception that diamonds are formed through the metamorphism of coal. However, they are found in rocks that are much older than coal. Most diamonds were formed from PreCambrian rock several billion years ago, whereas coal deposits are much younger. Diamonds are formed from carbon and are very hard because the bonds between the carbon atoms are very strong.

Diamonds can now be made synthetically in a lab under controlled conditions. Dr. Hall was the first who successfully created a diamond in the lab in a process that could be reproduced. For his work in creating artificial diamonds, Hall received the American Chemical Society's Award for Creation.

The Diamond and The Boy tells Tracy Hall's story. It was known how diamonds were created in nature and many believed that in time, the same conditions could be recreated in the lab. Dr. Hall and  his team did just that using a hydraulic press on carbon while heating it to 5000 Fahrenheit. Synthetic diamonds were becoming increasingly necessary in the oil and aerospace industry, so there was a need to develop a process to create artificial diamonds easily and without significant cost. Artificial diamonds could cut precisely and unlike natural diamonds,  could be designed for a specific task.

In The Diamond and The Boy, Hannah Holt, the granddaughter of Dr. Hall, tells the story of her grandfather along side a rock named graphite. The boy is poor and lives in a tent, while the rock lives deep down inside the earth. The graphite experiences the heat of the earth's mantle while the boy hides near heat to escape the bullies at school. Both experience pressure, the graphite the pressure from being buried so deeply in the mantle, the boy the pressures of hunger, cold and loneliness. While the graphite undergoes a violent eruption that brings it closer to the surface, the boy's talents are brought to light by his brilliance in school. Both wait for discovery, the diamond by the miners working the earth, the boy Tracy for graduation and a job in a science lab. Eventually, working after several trials, Dr. Hall was able to change rock into diamond.

Discussion

This picture book, geared for young audiences uses a dual narrative comparing the events a piece of graphite goes through to become a diamond to the events a young Tracy Hall experienced on his journey to creating artificial diamonds. The story is simply told, with the use of repetitive words such as HEAT,  PRESSURE, "THE CHANGE"  and phrases, "Mighty, unyielding, brilliant"  to emphasize the some of the more important aspects of the story for younger readers. Holt compares her grandfather's life experiences of being bullied and poor to that of carbon, both undergoing a trial that makes them something better, stronger and unbreakable.

Tracy Hall was born in 1919 in Utah. He studied at the University of Utah obtaining his B.Sc. and M.Sc. there. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he returned to his studies, obtaining his Ph,D in physical chemistry in 1948. Hall eventually joined a team at GE which was focused on creating artificial diamonds. Hall and the team managed to create a synthetic diamond in December of 1954. There is some controversy surrounding Hall and his methods, but the end result is that he was able to develop a process for producing synthetic diamonds that was reproducible.

Holt avoids all the controversy and just sticks to the basic story which is aided by Jay Fleck's simple illustrations created with coloured pencils and digitally added texture. Holt includes a short write-up titled "Diamonds As Gemstones" and a short biography of Tracy Hall, a Timeline and a Selected Bibliography.

Book Details:

The Diamond and The Boy by Hannah Holt
New York: Balzer + Bray     2018