The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins

Picture Book Review
LS 5603.20/Spring 2010
S. Vardell

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Kerley, Barbara. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. New York: Scholastic Press, 2001.

PLOT SUMMARY:

Who is Waterhouse Hawkins and what did he have to do with dinosaurs? The book The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by David Selznick tells a reader just that. All are familiar with the fossils and skeletal remains of dinosaurs that stand prominently in museums around the world. Yet, how did we come to understand what these extinct animals looked like? This book has the answers as author, Kerley, leads the reader through Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins' life in three stages with insight into his creative mind.


CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

This biographical story combines the talents of author Barbara Kerley and illustrator Brian Selznick. Kerley's text conveys factual information about Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins. It is clear Ms. Kerley did her homework and delivers a credible biographical story. This man, Waterhouse Hawkins, won the praise of the most ardent scientist of his time and the Queen of England. The recreation of the dinner party within the colossal mold of Hawkins's Iguanodon, complete with actual Menu in the bad of the book, serves to attest to this pioneers resourcefulness. Events like this dinner party lead to the dinosaur sculptures that grace the grounds of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. His project for Central Park in America was thwarted tragically by Boss Tweed's vandals and discontinued. The triumphs and struggles of this ground-breaking mind are shared with the reader and in the end makes even the most ardent "couch potato" want to roll up sleeves and unearth the remains of Hawkins work in Central Park.

Once again the brilliance of Brian Selznick shines through. The illustrations convey the stories period setting. The reader, immersed in the past, begins to appreciate how "ahead of his time" Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins is. Based on the original sketches of Mr. Hawkins, illustrator Selznick recreates images and interprets scenes in this extraordinary mans life. The detail is incredible. At the end of the book there is even a page contrasting the dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins with the "now" interpretations of this extinct species. To lend credibility, the author and illustrator both take a page to account for the resources and references gathered to bring this story to book form. Both Kerley and Selznick strive to accurately portray Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, the events in his life and his dinosaurs.

AWARDS WON AND REVIEW EXCERPTS:
ABC Children's Booksellers Choices Award, 2002 Winner Non-Fiction United States
American Booksellers Book Sense Book of the Year (ABBY) Award, 2002 Finalist Children's Illustrated United States
Garden State Children's Book Award, 2004 Winner Children's Non-Fiction New Jersey
Great Lakes Great Books Award, 2003 Honor Book Grades 4-5 Michigan
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, 2002 Honor United States
Randolph Caldecott Medal, 2002 Honor Book United States

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2001 (Vol. 69, No. 13)

who could resist? Staring straight out from the handsome album-like cover is a slight man with a shock of white hair and an intense, intelligent gaze. Over his shoulder looms the enormous mouth of a dinosaur. This is perfectly designed to pique reader's curiosity with one of the strangest true stories dinosaur lovers will ever read. The man is Waterhouse Hawkins, who, in Victorian England, devoted his life to making ordinary people aware of dinosaurs at a time when most had never heard of them and could not imagine what they looked like....

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 2001 (Vol. 55, No. 2))
Hawkins, a British artist who combined scientific observation with sculptorly imagination to create the earliest full-scale dinosaur reconstructions, receives fanciful biographical treatment in three “ages” (chapters), corresponding to stages in his career. Kerley focuses on his commissions in England and the United States and on the destruction of his models--doubtless at the orders of New York’s infamous Boss Tweed. Although there is much intrinsic interest in this aspect of Hawkins’ story, dinophiles are here to see how Hawkins’ interpolations stand the test of subsequent scholarship, and this juicy topic gets short shrift

Images Credited to:
http://www.copyrightexpired.com/hawkins/nyc/Benjamin_Waterhouse_.html
http://www.victorianstation.com/palace.html
Waterhouse Hawkins' concept drawing for the would Paleozoic Museum, featuring extinct
          American Fauna (including Hadrosaurus, Laelap
          [today known as Dryptosaurus] and Mosasaurus
 Barbara Kerley's Official Website

CONNECTIONS
Barbara Kerley'sWebsite
Scholastic Interview with Brian Selznick

Related topics from CLCD
Hawkins, B. Waterhouse (Benjamin Waterhouse), 1807-1889 Juvenile literature.
Hawkins, B. Waterhouse (Benjamin Waterhouse), 1807-1889.
Dinosaurs--Models--History--19th century Juvenile literature.
Modelmakers--Great Britain Biography Juvenile literature.
Modelmakers.

Dinosaur Study