It’s interesting reading a 2014 published book in 2020. You would think not much has changed in six years, but wow I think there has been a mindset shift. Diamond Boy by Michael Williams really does illustrate, at least to me, how much I’ve learned and grown as a discerning reader since 2016. This book is about a teenage Zimbabwean boy named Patson. He moves from his home to a diamond mining town in hopes of a better life with his family. It’s written by a white man. And well, I just don’t know that this was an appropriate person to tell the story. To clarify, I believe that there’s so much value to books that are own voices and knowing what I do know about the seats available at the publishing table, I had that in the back of my mind while reading.

So, Diamond Boy is almost like Blood Diamond in book form for young adults. Patson’s father was a school teacher and believes he is moving his family to obtain a new teaching job by the diamond mine with government housing. The diamond mine is owned by Patson’s stepmother’s brother. As it turns out though, nothing is as the family had expected. So, Patson and his father work the mine in hopes of finding a perfect diamond and their way out of poverty. Unfortunately, the government and army steps in. Things go haywire. There’s tragedy. There are very serious stakes involved.

This book provides an exploration of what life is like working on the diamond mines. In addition, we learn about what life is like under Mugabe. To be honest, I am not motivated to look up if Mugabe is still involved in the Zimbabwean government. In the afterword written in 2014, he was. We learn about the impact of inflation. Also, there’s information on the impact of HIV and AIDS. I think that this book does an okay job of talking about how hard life can be when in poverty. It also is a very quick read. If you do pick this up, just do it with the caveat in mind that it is absolutely not an own voices book. You might gain more insight on diamond mine life, but not the insight that comes with an own voices book.