I'm a bit older than the target age range for this book.

I suspected early on that there would be lessons to be learned.

Gem lives in a society where the division is between rocks and minerals. She's an oddity--a rock born to mineral parents--and feels she doesn't fit in. After a particularly trying day, Gem meets Opal, Pyrite and Obsidian and the four of them go off to find the Great Diamond to get answers to their questions. Along the way, they find out interesting information about themselves.

The trip is a bit reminiscent of Dorothy's quest in "The Wizard of Oz". The story is okay. The lessons are:
*That we all have talents or attributes
*That we're all basically the same and that our differences come mostly from our experiences
*That things are not always as they appear on the outside or on the surface. ( )