Product Description 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 From Kirkus Reviews PLB 0-06-026029-7 Fans of The Tub People (1989) will welcome their return for a third gnomic drama. Arrayed before the fireplace, the extended wooden family is scattered when Someone comes down the chimney, bringing gifts and a small evergreen. Gathered up and placed in a deep pocket, the tiny figurines grow more and more anxious as they are removed one by one, to be reunited in the end as ornaments hung on a magnificent Christmas tree. Wrapping the tale with pleasant-looking angels, Egielski brings readers to a toy's-eye-view with skillful close-ups, then pulls back for full-page portraits of Santa and the entire tree; as ever, the Tub People's abbreviated gestures and subtle changes of expression are wonderfully affecting. An intimate alternative for those too young (or disinclined) to board The Polar Express. (Picture book. 4-6) -- Copyright 1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.