Review of "The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins" by Barbara Kerley, Brian Selznick

Way back in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, no one had any idea about what a dinosaur might look like. A man by the name of Waterhouse Hawkins was an artist. He was preparing an exhibit for the Victoria and Albert Museum at the new Crystal Palace in England. For years he had studied animals of all kinds. Now he was about to piece together a dinosaur from the bones that had been found, and with the help of a scientist he was constructing the very first dinosaur figures.

This colorful book is filled with the art and wisdom of a showman who happened to put together dinosaurs for the pleasure of the world. He arrived in America and began to put together a new museum for more dinosaur figures, but politics and disaster struck his plans. He finally was able to display some of his creations at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

Here is a fascinating look at a visionary very few of us knew about. There are huge and colorful pictures to illustrate the works of Waterhouse Hawkins. His story is well worth knowing.