Into the Cosmos Collection

Gr 5–8—Stars flare, titanic storms rage, colliding galaxies burst apart, and clouds of blazing gases blast toward the viewer in over-the-top portrayals of our far-from-quiet universe. "No matter how hard we try…there's no way to prepare," intones one narrator with typical theatricality, "for Nature's cosmic fury." For all this melodrama, the six programs are constructed in a typically impersonal science-TV template that couples digitally rendered images of star fields, black holes, nebulae, and other extraterrestrial phenomena. They are souped up with coruscating colors, wild jerk-motion animation, and live-action clips featuring earthly volcanoes and the like, or scientists gazing off-camera and commenting at sound-bite length about how massive and unimaginably violent it all is. Titles range from "Comets" to "Stellar Storms" and "Most Powerful Stars." All six episodes have been shown on TV and are available on the Web, though only "Inside the Milky Way" (which is feature length; the others run about 45 minutes each) is free and in HD quality. Still, there are modest quantities of astronomical information to be gleaned despite the exaggerated signal-to-noise ratio.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York City