Pluto’s Secret: An Icy World’s Tale of Discovery by Margaret A. Weitekamp (review)

This offering from the staff of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum traces the discovery of Pluto—from its prediction by Percival Lowell to its accomplishment by Clyde Tombaugh—and its reclassification from planet to dwarf planet in 2006. The dust has already pretty much settled on this issue, and middle-grade students with up-to-date curricular materials already consider the solar system as a sun, eight rocky or gaseous planets and their moons, and asteroid and Kuiper belts featuring dwarf planets and other fascinating space debris. Illustrations are jokey cartoons in line and watercolor, as informal as the handprinted-style font. The need for yet another replay of the downgrade drama—and a cheesily anthropomorphized cartoon replay of it, at that—will probably not be obvious, particularly in light of excellent materials at hand for student research on the topic. Children who are intimidated by more sober, serious looking science books may nonetheless be drawn to this light-hearted imagining of a gregarious Pluto who guides the baffled public to an understanding of the special traits he shares with his Kuiper belt buddies. A glossary, and notes on the planets and the 2006 International Astronomical Union decision on Pluto’s status are included.