The Devil's Diamond

Virginia Gillham is Associate Librarian in the Public Service Library at
the University of Guelph.

Kings, queens, princesses, fantasy, and magic kingdoms are the stuff of which ancient fairy tales were made. Unlike the fables of Aesop, the moral intent or intrinsic value of traditional fairy tales beyond the level of entertainment has always been open to considerable speculation.

In The Devil’s Diamond Carroll Bishop has attempted to employ the fairy tale format to sugarcoat a morality play with roots in the Christian religion. The result is perplexing — a fairy tale written by an adult which, if the dustjacket testimonials are to be believed, appeals to other adults who recall their childhood literature through a nostalgic haze, but who are clearly no longer in close touch with the 6 years and up age group this story purports to address.

Using a vocabulary that includes such words and phrases as “Pater Noster,” “malignancy,” “nullified,” and “inert,” Ms. Baker weaves an unnecessarily convoluted tale, filled with pieces of wisdom that strike repeated chords in the experienced adult reader. The second edition of the Christ Child (described by one nine-year-old reader as Jesus 2) is somehow absorbed into the fantasy, and the ultimate message is the triumph of good, as embodied in Christian love, over evil.

This piece of literature suffers from a drastically ill-defined target audience. If the author truly was aiming at six-year-olds, as the dustjacket suggests, she would do well to examine the likes of The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch to learn how to convey a moral clearly and simply to young children. If, on the other hand, an older audience was the intent, as the vocabulary and some of the philosophical concepts would seem to imply, then an older main character and the elimination of some of the more patronizing aspects of the text would seem to be in order.

A test audience of nine-year-olds indicated that they found the story “too magical,” and, while they were clearly in command of the concepts of good and evil and the basic tenets of Christianity, the interpretation of any detail below that level was arrived at only with exhaustive socratic questioning.

This title should be selected for purchase after very careful consideration of the text and the potential audience.