Synopsis
Sara finds her family's Chanukah celebrations boring until Tante Miriam arrives at the holiday party. She gives Sara a Golden Dreydl that is really an enchanted princess who guides Sara on a journey into a magical world. Imaginative drawings depict a universe where Jewish history collides with fantasy.
Children's Literature
As the holidays arrive, Sara laments the fact that she cannot partake in the same Christmas activities as her friends. Instead of hanging lights and ornaments on a Christmas tree or baking and decorating cookies, Sara must go with her family to her Aunt Leah's Chanukah party. Then, during the "boring" Chanukah activities, an unexpected guest arrives bearing a bag of presents for the children. It is Tante Miriam, a mysterious relative who shows up occasionally without warning. Much to Sara's dismay, Miriam gives her a golden dreydl for her Chanukah present. Sara fights with her older brother, the dreydl flies into Aunt Leah's brand new television, cracking the screen. To Sara's amazement, the television opens up a portal to another world, where she finds out that her golden dreydl is actually a princess in disguise. The princess is the daughter of the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. They transformed her into a dreydl at her request, providing her with the sacred letters of the dreydl—nun, gimel, hey, and shin—for her protection. When the princess is kidnapped, Sara is called upon to rescue her and restore order to the kingdom. Sara is transported from the lackluster normalcy of her aunt's house to a world full of adventure. There, she encounters increasingly bizarre characters, including a riddling fool and mystical, yet comical brain-sucking demons. Artist Ilene Winn-Lederer's detailed drawings perfectly illustrate the whimsy of Kushner's imaginative world. The author appropriately addresses the issues of peer pressure and anxiety about being "different" that accompany young adulthood, while the story itself retains a sense of playfulness. Through a whirlwind ofgames, riddles, and magic, Sara quickly learns that the dreydl, like her religious heritage, holds more for her than she ever imagined. Reviewer: Lydia Ferguson