Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants

Here Comes Science by the alt-rock band The Might be Giants is a delightful CD/DVD set of kids music and video about...Science! The set comes with both a CD with all the music and a DVD with all the videos wrapped into a show with animated, light-hearted commentary and introduction by the two Giants, John Linnell and John Flansburgh.

Here's a list of the tunes, so you can get an idea of the breadth of topics covered. TMBG has a channel on YouTube where you can find many of the videos.

• Science Is Real
• Meet the Elements
• I Am a Paleontologist w/Danny Weinkauf
• The Bloodmobile
• Electric Car w/Robin Goldwasser
• My Brother the Ape
• What Is a Shooting Star?
• How Many Planets?
• Why Does the Sun Shine?
• Why Does the Sun Really Shine?
• Roy G. Biv
• Put It to the Test
• Photosynthesis
• Cells
• Speed and Velocity w/Marty Beller
• Computer Assisted Design
• Solid Liquid Gas
• The Ballad of Davy Crockett (in Outer Space) (bonus track)

Overall, they're great: lively, interesting, educational and fun, with a good variety. The music is a breezy folky sound that will definitely appeal to most kids -- and most adults too. The science content is very good too, accurate and yet engaging. The videos were each created by different artists, so each has a different feel. But at the same time, they're not so different that there isn't an unified feel.

My favourites? Science is Real, Electric Car and Roy G. Biv.

I recommend this set without reservation. Your kids will love it, your friends' kids will love it, your kids' classmates will love it. It's aimed at kids younger than, say, grade 4 but older kids with a sense of fun will also enjoy it, although it may lose some of it's attraction during the "too cool" teen years. School and public libraries are a natural fit as well as resource libraries for education programs in colleges or universities.

The only thing I would have done differently would have been to add a karaoke option for the videos. I can easily imagine wanting to have family or class sing-a-longs!

It's also worth noting that TMBG has also produced a couple of other kids CD/DVD sets: Here Come The 123s and Here Come the ABCs.

(CD/DVD set provided by the artists.)