I was very disappointed with the ending. It was a depressing story. To its credit, the book does portray a valuable lesson that there are those in this life that trick others to take advantage of them for their own interest. However, in my opinion, if a lesson is the main focus of the book, then it would be best to counter it with the right way to do things rather than portray only the negative side. To its further credit, it was a story that was retold from an old Native American tale, and the author must have felt compelled to stay with the original story rather than tamper with the original message.
Almost as a novelty there is a ladybug in every picture. All the illustrations were done very well, filled with color to offset the darkness of the black color of the crows and Raven.
As a final note, poor baby crows. This also causes me to think about all the thousands, if not millions, of children of the world who are tragically hungry and are dying by hunger everyday.