This is a lovely book, handsomely designed, handsomely produced. The typographic design, the choice of type, the positioning of images, the relation of text and image, the handling of colour, the choice of paper: all are exemplary. The designer, however, has chosen a typeface that requires the use of ligatures, and the ligatures are absent. It makes an enormous difference. There are some other indications of typographic carelessness. The justification is poor; the paragraphs are often too loose; the quotations are sometimes handled in an inefficient or careless way; and there are defects, such as that on page 180, where the text block has been knocked 3.5 picas (that is, more than half an inch) out of position. In fact, the only thing on page 180 that is where it belongs is the page number. It is also highly unfortunate that this book is not Smyth-sewn. It is a book that will, no doubt, find itself on many bedside tables and will be frequently consulted by interested readers. It ought to be sewn so that it will stay in one piece, and so that it will behave as books must; that is, so that it will open and lie flat, and then open and close again without falling to pieces.

This has a very handsome dust jacket. The printed case is not nearly as sophisticated as the jacket. The typography inside the book is generally well done, chapter openings nice but a bit fussy, the spacing of the illustrations good, though many of the images themselves are disappointing. Indeed, what ails this book is that the quality of the images varies so drastically. If you compare the illustrations in this book with those in the inexpensive paperback guide called Hiking the West Coast of Vancouver Island (to which we awarded a prize in the reference category) you see what is missing in Crows; that is, technical attention to the quality of the illustrations.

This is happily tongue-in-cheek, the type nicely set, the pages excellently designed. The type is printed on paper that suits the type. The pictures are well-integrated with the text, the ligatures are present as they need to be; and it is refreshing to see a bilingual book in which the French and English do not compete with one another, spread after spread, and are not forced to share a single page, nor forced to share a single set of illustrations. The cover is disguised as the cover of a naturalist's pocket book; the paw prints on the endpapers prove that the small animal referred to in the title has survived from the beginning of the book, in English, to the end, in French.

This is a friendly, unpretentious, honest and warm book; simple and dignified, a non-elitist presentation of non-elitist subject matter. The design pays respect to the people who are the subjects of the book. The focus is placed clearly on the illustrations rather than the text, as, no doubt, it ought to be.