The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Brian
Selznick, Scholastic Press, $16.95, ISBN 0439114942
AS A dinosaur-mad youngster I saw the picture many times: 22 Victorian
gentlemen having dinner inside a giant lizard. But what exactly were they
doing?
This richly illustrated book tells the story of that dinner party and the man
who organised it, Waterhouse Hawkins. He was a sculptor employed to bring
prehistoric animals to life for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Working from
fragments of fossilised tooth and bone, he made life-sized models of iguanodons,
plesiosaurs and pterodactyls. They were a big hit.…
