The Tub People

"The Tub People" by Pam Conrad has a main theme of resilience. The story is centered on a family of wooden bath toys. They experience a traumatic event when the child of the family is pulled down bath drain.

The author uses the literary element of characterization to help the tub people feel like a real family. They are given feelings and family roles. This connects children to the story, and gives a great example of a family going through a hard time, and making it through, coming out of their hard time even more connected than before.

When reading this book as a child, I would always feel upset when the Tub Child was pulled down the drain. As the family came back together again, I would feel happy and read the book again. Re-reading show more this book as an adult, I can understand the resilience and emotions of this story, and why it became one of my childhood favorites. show less

Read in?áThe 20th Children's Book Treasury.?á A neat message about empathy as the child (we're encouraged to deduce) has been scolded for not taking better care of his toys, so we readers can figure out the parents' anger, the child's shame, and the dolls' trauma. ?áBut because the humans are never shown, the emotional power of the book is muted, and so not too intense for a sensitive reader.

I love the artwork of this book, which is what my rating is for, however I can not recommend it to be read to young children, especially if you know they have issues with either drains or baths and both are fairly common issues.

The child tub toy falls down the drain and the whole family stands by helpless and unable to do anything until he is "rescued" by accident by a plumber, and even that isn't exactly a positive experience.

This book is great for imagination, personification, adjectives, and imagery. I think everyone has played make believe with some kind of tub person or another.

One of my all-time favorite stories! Diaster strikes when the little boy toy is sucked down the drain. It has drama and a happy ending!

This story has great characters each with their own personalities. There is a bit of drama, but all ends well.
Curricular Connections:
*Pair with Kevin Henkes book, Waiting for compare/contrast

Yet another book that I loved while growing up. A beautiful story with lovely illustrations.