HEART ON PLUTO

Greetings from the New Horizons space probe—which has a big surprise to share about the dwarf planet Pluto.

Giveaway title notwithstanding, the personified probe does a good job setting up the climactic revelation with an account of its long, long journey past Jupiter and the other outer planets and a simple introduction to Pluto’s changing official status. Upon arrival the narrator burbles, “I made it!” and sends an image of the huge, heart-shaped nitrogen lake that is Pluto’s most prominent physical feature back to Earth, “It’s so cute!” Ross, in contrast to his realization of the dusty setting of Sara Schonfeld’s Birthday on Mars (2019), gives the encounter a warm and informal air by rendering the planets and probe with spongy surfaces, as if they were constructed out of blocks of colored foam, and the heart with sharp, nearly symmetrical borders so that it looks cut out and pasted onto Pluto’s surface. Though Saturn is tilted in an early view he does depict the planet with rings seen edge on in a later one, which may confuse some viewers. Also, though Jones closes with a bulleted fact list, he goes for mush over wonder at the end with multiple exclamations about how Pluto loves us, and Earth loves it back. Human figures are diverse throughout; one classroom group includes a child wearing a hijab.

An interplanetary lovefest with sprinkles of astro-fact embedded in the goo.