The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins

The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins Barbara Kerley, ill Brian Selznick, Scholastic, 2009 (2001), 36 pages, paperback, ISBN978-0-439-11495-0

‘The jolly old beast is not deceased.
There’s life in him again.’
First published in hardback in 2001, this Caldecott Honour Book now returns in paperback to gain a new readership. Barbara Kerley’s skilful text and Brian Selznick’s imaginative illustrations bring to life the amazing Victorian sculptor-lecturer-showman, Waterhouse Hawkins, whose giant dinosaur statues in Crystal Palace Park still have the power to enthral.
We see Hawkins as a boy drawing and sculpting animals, and then as a respected scientist using fossil fragments to create pictures and models of dinosaurs. Queen Victoria visits his workshop full of life-size replicas in clay and plaster, being made ready for display at the Crystal Palace. After his London triumph, Hawkins is invited to New York to create more dinosaur replicas. Political skulduggery (by ‘Boss’ Tweed, no less) destroys his dream for central Park but Hawkins has other achievements to uplift his spirits both at home and abroad.
This large format picture book has a generous feel to it. The fresh and readable text is supplemented with an account of Hawkins’ remarkable life and works, as well the menu for the famous dinner eaten by 22 scientists inside the belly of the unfinished iguanodon statue. The colourful illustrations capture the magic of dinosaurs both as they appeared to Victorians and as we see them today. Some of the pictures seem to flow through time, and all of them reflect the enthusiasm of Hawkins himself. As he walks through London, his sketches of dinosaurs are carried by the wind to amaze passers-by, while Hawkins himself is constantly attended by the spirits of the extinct creatures he loved.
As the scientists sang at his historic iguanodon dinner:
‘The jolly old beast is not deceased.
There’s life in him again.’