What's a Tub Child to think when his Grandfather hands him a metal hook and tells him to “stand guard” as a roly-poly man in a red suit with a very large sack and an even larger tree pops out of the chimney in the middle of the night? In this last of the Tub People trilogy, the beloved tub toys meet Santa, who rescues the Tub Child from the overly friendly family dog. After a thrill ride in the big bearded fellow's pocket, the Tub People are all placed gently on the Christmas tree where, wonder of wonders, the Tub Child, in the place of honor at the very top, gets to look down on his entire laughing family mixed merrily in with popcorn and candy canes and stars. Author Pam Conrad is pictured at the beginning and end of the book as an angel, the Tub People's creator, and guardian. All the Tub People become angels on the endpapers and are reproduced in a sheet of beautiful Tub People Christmas ornaments that children can hang on their tree.
From Publishers Weekly
A posthumous gift for fans of the late Conrad, this tale finds the Tub People all a-twitter one winter night when a mysterious visitor descends through the chimney. He pockets the worried Tub People, then removes them one by one, to become ornaments on a beautiful Christmas tree. The leisurely pace of Conrad's economical prose and dazzling simplicity of Egielski's rounded forms are a rare match; this final curtain call is sheer joy. Tree ornaments, not seen by PW, will be packaged with the book. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In the third in the Tub People series, the small wooden toys are scared when Santa comes down the chimney, and they can't understand what's happening to them as they become ornaments on the tree. However, they learn about Christmas gifts and get to see a whole new world when they watch together from their new high viewpoints. Most small children will recognize how it feels to be miniature in a giant world, and they'll enjoy being in the know while the bewildered Tub People can't figure out what's going on. Egielski's illustrations, in bright, clear colors, play with the changing perspectives: the toys are close up and large in their own drama; they are tiny when seen through human eyes. And there's a smiling blond angel managing everything--cradling the toys, standing them up for the story, writing with a quill. She bears a strong resemblance to the late Pam Conrad. Hazel Rochman