I'm willing to overlook your importunity on this occasion because I was providing some research to Handmaiden for her birthday and you've spotted the important discovery. Actually it appears twice.
PAGE 5 “…I’m the first to establish actual physical contact between the two planets.”
PAGE 7 “…So far I’ve landed seven times, and mixed with the people for a month each time., without their being aware of of my identity as a visitor from another globe.”
PAGE 7 Far below he could see the Earth, a large sphere of light surrounded by darkness.
Twice means I'm not sure if you could remember what was on page 5 by the time you reached page 7 making 3 altogether. From the style of writing clearly this is aimed at 7- or 8-year-olds and the insidious promotion of Ball Theory is omnipresent. No mention is made of other theories and perhaps I'm too liberal but more than one shape is possible that doesn't contradict God. Ball, globe or sphere is not one of them. Additionally, although anyone can see Venus and although The Bible acknowledges the existence of planets, the overarching theme of the Earth being just another planet (like Venus in this case) directly contradicts Scripture.
And yet here it is a central theme of the story. The result can only be intentional, to establish by insinuation that God doesn't know anything about Creation or alternatively that He's a big fat liar, pants on fire, never listen to God. I was frankly shocked to see this so early in my research and knew that the first few pages would be suitable for a birthday post.
Like Daniel we are all interested in science and know the importance of considering all the alternatives, not just presenting one theory and ignoring everything else. Let's face it: even in a single document written by a single author the word for "ball" is used but when describing the Earth the word for "ball" is rejected.
Isaiah 22:18, 40:22