Library Lines ...

"Momma, their mobile doesn't have enough planets."

So proclaimed the precocious 10-year-old youngster to her mother, with whom I was visiting here at Rhoads Memorial Library. I chimed in, "Yes it does. Pluto is not there because it is no longer considered a planet."

The mother assured me that designation had changed about a year ago as Pluto had returned to planet status. Embarrassed that I had not heard such monumental news, I later researched the matter online, with NASA and the IAU (International Astronomical Union) as my main information sources. Put succinctly, this is what they determined:

In 2006, it was decided that astronomical objects must fulfill the following three criteria to be called a planet in our solar system:

1) the object is in orbit around the Sun;

2) it has a nearly round shape due to its own gravity;

3) it has cleared out its orbital path around the Sun so there are not similar objects to itself at roughly the same distance from the Sun.

Pluto did not fulfill that third requirement, so it became known by the new designation of "dwarf planet." Therefore, planets and dwarf planets are distinct classes of objects, meaning dwarf planets are not planets.

That 2006 reclassification of Pluto had farreaching implications for many, including libraries and schools. Harrington Library Consortium, of which we are a member, contacted us years ago to suggest removing books, posters, mobiles, etc. that still showed Pluto as our ninth planet. This meant replacing outdated materials with new ones, which meant spending money on new books, etc. We did this, so that is why I was alarmed (and seeing dollar signs!) at the idea that our new items were outdated. But all is well, as is our mobile, at least for now, which contains eight, not nine, planets.

Enough for the science lesson. In more Earthly pursuits, following is a list of newly released books that have arrived here and are ready for checkout:

"Calder Brand" (a novel) by Janet Dailey;

"Dark Sky" (a Joe Pickett novel) by C.J. Box;

"The Affair" (a novel) by Danielle Steel;

"A Simple Murder: A Kate Burkholder Short Story Collection" by Linda Castillo.

A donated book released in 2019, "The Deserter" by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille, features an unorthodox Army investigator and his female partner searching for a member of Delta Force who has willfully disappeared. The duo hopes to bring Captain Kyle Mercer, a trained assassin and keeper of classified Army intelligence, back to America alive. They know this will be difficult, if not impossible.

Until next week, Happy Reading!