This extraordinary true story introduces readers to the unforgettable Waterhouse Hawkins: Victorian artist and visionary who built the world's first life-size models of dinosaurs! Can you fathom a time when almost no one in the world knew what a dinosaur looked like? That was true in the mid-nineteenth century, until Victorian artist Waterhouse Hawkins built the first life-size models of dinosaurs, first in his native England and later in New York City, and dazzled the world with his awe-inspiring creations. With impeccable attention to detail, Barbara Kerley unearths a story of consuming passion, triumph, loss, and courage--and ultimately, of an extraordinary legacy that lives on today. Caldecott Medalist Brian Selznick celebrates this complex and fascinating individual through luminous, soul-stirring paintings that form a visual masterpiece. "Can you fathom a time when almost no one in the world knew what a dinosaur looked like?" Barbara Kerley and Brian Selznick can--and it was a time when people used words like "fathom" a lot, about 150 years ago. This author-illustrator team became experts on the subject, delving deeply into the life of Victorian artist Waterhouse Hawkins, the first person to ever summon up, sketch, mold, and fabricate these ancient giants into full-size models. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins , presented in breathlessly earnest chapbook style ("A True Dinosaur Story in Three Ages"), follows the life of Hawkins from his early fossil studies to the first iguanodon that he extrapolates into existence for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The story then follows his subsequent victories and defeats at home and abroad: a triumphantly unorthodox New Year's Eve dinner party with the fathers of paleontology; the unveiling of Dinosaur Island; Boss Tweed's scuttling of a planned Paleozoic Museum in Central Park, and the destruction of years of Hawkins's work in the process. And the story is all true, although this veracity does make the pacing a bit clunky in spots. Then again, Kerley and Selznick have researched their hero with meticulous care (check out the copious endnotes), so perhaps only Hawkins himself can be blamed for leading a life that didn't always progress in perfect dramatic form. Overshadowing the narrative, though, are Selznick's stately, ghostly illustrations--of towering megalosaurs and Hawkins shuffling about with cane and top hat--which more than make up the difference. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes Gr 2-5-A picture-book presentation about the efforts of Hawkins to erect the first life-sized models of dinosaurs on both sides of the Atlantic. A Victorian artist and sculptor, he was well respected in England, and his reputation insured his being invited to construct replicas of creatures no one had ever seen and to unveil them at the newly constructed Crystal Palace. Kerley's spirited text and Selznick's dramatic paintings bring Hawkins's efforts into clear focus, including his frustrating experience in New York City when Boss Tweed set vandals loose in his workshop. Both author and illustrator provide copious notes of biographical material delineating Hawkins's works, and Selznick's trips to Philadelphia to view a rare scrapbook that is the model for this book's design and to London to see the original Crystal Palace models. Painstakingly researched, written and illustrated with careful attention to detail, this book presents the fervor and spirit of a dedicated, little-known individual whose conceptions-however erroneous by today's discoveries-astounded the minds and stirred the imaginations of scientists then involved in the actual birth of paleontology. A distinguished book in every way. Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. *Starred Review* Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. What a marvelous pairing: the life of the nineteenth-century British dinosaur maven Waterhouse Hawkins and Selznick's richly evocative, Victorian-inspired paintings. Hawkins had been drawing and sculpting animals from his childhood. As an adult he set to work trying to recreate what a living dinosaur looked like based on fossil remains. Hawkins' dinosaur sculptures still stand in Sydenham, England, a better fate than what happened to those he built in New York City. There, Hawkins ran afoul of Boss Tweed; children can thrill to the idea that broken pieces of Hawkins' dinosaurs still lie buried in Central Park. Kerley also regales her audience with the story of Hawkins' New Year's Eve dinner, with guests seated inside the shell of the iguanodon he was building. Selznick's art is wonderfully wrought, innovative in its choices, clever in what and how he chose to illustrate. Equally fantastic is the execution: oh, those dinosaurs! Extensive notes from the author and illustrator are clear enough even for younger children and provide a genuine sense of the thrill of research. Although many of Hawkins' dinosaur models are now know