A Dreidel in Time: A New Spin on an Old Tale

Devorah and Benjamin are excited to open their Hanukkah present from Bubbe and Zayde, which turns out to be an ugly old dreidel. It's a big disappointment—until the dreidel transports them out of modern Los Angeles to join the ancient Maccabees! Once they convince a suspicious Judah Maccabee and their new friends that they've arrived to help, they use what they know about the Hanukkah story from Hebrew school to aid the Maccabees in their battle against Antiochus. The kids know that the miracle of Hanukkah relies on finding the special oil for the Temple menorah, but where can it be?

"Devorah and her younger brother, Benjamin, anxiously await their Hanukkah presents.They are disappointed when their grandparents give them only a very old, misshapen dreidel to share, but Mom knows that this dreidel has magical properties that once helped her reach a true understanding of Hanukkah. The children's first spin lands on Shin, meaning they have lost something. They have also somehow landed (with the dreidel) in ancient Modi'in, where Jews are in conflict with the Syrian king. The children find that they are speaking and understanding Hebrew and quickly become caught up in the fight between the Maccabees and the Syrian army. After the next spin, Nun, meaning neither gain nor loss, two years have passed and the battles continue. Hey, or halfway, leads to 'a great miracle happened here': one night's oil burning for eight nights. Finally they spin Gimmel, or everything, and at last return home with a better understanding of their holiday traditions. These modern children are not only witnesses; they use historical information to guide the Maccabees' leaders and to participate bravely in the events--to the extent that the author seems to imply that these ancients might not have been able to succeed without them. Castro's black-and-white cartoon illustrations provide readers with visual context, depicting both historical and modern characters with pale skin. This exciting retelling of the Hanukkah story should appeal to both Jewish and non-Jewish children. (Historical fiction/fantasy. 8-10)"―Kirkus Reviews

"A clas-sic Hanukkah tale with a fan-ta-sy twist tells the sto-ry of a drei-del that spins back-ward in time, lead-ing chil-dren to the time of Judah the Mac-cabee in ancient Israel. Many ver-sions of this sto-ry have been told over the years, both in Hebrew and in Eng-lish, enter-tain-ing gen-er-a-tions of chil-dren with dif-fer-ent inter-pre-ta-tions on Jew-ish history.

Mar-cia Ber-neger's new pic-ture book uses the basic ele-ments of the sto-ry but adds anoth-er lay-er. In addi-tion to learn-ing about the hol-i-day and a bit of Jew-ish his-to-ry, the sto-ry presents a gen-tle moral les-son -- that Hanukkah is not entire-ly about receiv-ing presents. Tak-ing a moral stand and putting one-self on the line when con-fronting issues of right and wrong is more impor-tant than rip-ping wrap-ping paper off gifts for eight nights in a row.

Devo-rah and Ben-jamin see Hanukkah as a gift-giv-ing extrav-a-gan-za. They are inter-est-ed only in what they will get next from fam-i-ly mem-bers who want them to enjoy the hol-i-day. But when Bubbe and Zayde arrive with a gift for them to share, they are dis-ap-point-ed to find an old, ugly, used drei-del in the pack-age. The dis-ap-point-ed feel-ing does-n't last long; the chil-dren are about to embark on the adven-ture of a lifetime!

Over sev-er-al spins, the drei-del mys-te-ri-ous-ly hur-tles them into the past where they become an inte-gral part of the Hanukkah sto-ry, and meet a series of char-ac-ters they have only pre-vi-ous-ly encoun-tered in their Hebrew school class-es. They see King Anti-ochus who is deter-mined to destroy the Tem-ple and pre-vail over the Jews, as well as Judah Mac-cabee and his cohorts, who brave-ly oppose him and his pow-er-ful armies. The chil-dren are sur-prised by this turn of events and endeav-or to be help-ful, using their knowl-edge of his-to-ry to make sure the Jews win the bat-tle. Although Devo-rah and Ben-jamin try to tell Judah what is about to occur so he can be pre-pared to fight effec-tive-ly, he refus-es to lis-ten and sim-ply will not under-stand. The chil-dren per-se-vere and find a way to help, result-ing in the reded-i-ca-tion of the Tem-ple and the famil-iar search for enough oil to light the menorah.

This enchant-i-ng book is illus-trat-ed in a cheer-ful, bright style which adds to the fun. Chil-dren of today will learn that Hanukkah is less about gifts and more about iden-ti-ty, brav-ery, and determination." --Jewish Book Council