A thirst for knowledge, a passion for creativity, and a desire to share with the world are the hallmarks of Waterhouse Hawkins, a nineteenth-century British natural history artist who specialized in dinosaurs. From his earliest models of dinosaurs, derived from the latest scientific discoveries of the time, to his later years of painting and making “iguanodons,” Waterhouse worked tirelessly to share his creatures with a wide audience, ranging from fellow scientists to strollers in the Crystal Palace Gardens in London. Jonathan Pryce narrates with vigor. He takes Brian Selznick’s illustration cues to heart as he portrays characters with great flair. As listeners pore over Selznick’s rich paintings, Pryce breathes life into the dinosaurs and the extraordinary characters—including the pompous and conniving scientist William “Boss” Tweed. Interviews with the author and illustrator sharing their exploration of Hawkins and his dinosaurs conclude the production.
Ages 8+Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2010
Duration: 20 mins
Publisher: Weston Woods Studios
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners lose some of the fun without print; with print, they find confusion.
The titular penguins travel through time in this audio rendition of Dempsey’s series-opening graphic novel. When impulsive Splash proposes a tropical HOLIDAY (a fanfare accompanies the word’s every utterance), cautious Pablo is willing to go along…but the beach they find after a chaotic trip has dinosaurs! This agreeable romp has been lightly adapted for audio, relying on sound effects to convey the action. Listeners eager to see the humor those sounds evoke will want to read along with the book—but in the U.S., they’ll find that the print edition has been Americanized, whereas the audio has not. The audio's Briticisms have been “translated”—including the oft-repeated HOLIDAY, which is rendered in print as VACATION.
Listeners lose some of the fun without print; with print, they find confusion. (Graphic adventure. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2026
Duration: 48 mins
DD ISBN: 9781547620951
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: today
A disappointment.
Narrator JJ Hawkins gives voice to the hurt and anger eighth grader Jasper, an autistic trans boy, feels when his older brother goes off to college while Jasper channels his emotions into digging for fossils in the backyard. It can’t be possible…but then a saber-toothed tiger speaks telepathically to Jasper from beneath the earth. What could be cooler? Unfortunately, Gow’s free verse poems emphasize Jasper’s roiling emotions over plotting and pacing, with the result that listeners spend more time hearing how Jasper feels than they do experiencing the suspense of discovery and the excitement that ensues. Hawkins does his best to lend Jasper some nuance, but his efforts can go only so far with a character who is written as an exposed raw nerve.
A disappointment. (Verse fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798349108426
Publisher: Dreamscape
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2026
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