The Golden Dreydl

by Ellen Kushner

Nun, Gimel, Hey, Shin

Sara finds Chanukah celebrations boring. When her Tante Miriam arrives and gives her a Golden Dreydl, everything changes. The dreydl, an enchanted princess in disguise, takes Sara on a journey to a magical world.

When the princess is taken by the Demon King, who possesses the power of the Tree of Life, it is Sara who must use her wit to save the princess and return her to her parents — King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

A delightful holiday tale that weaves together threads of Jewish folklore and tradition with fantasy and humor.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction, Jewish, Childrens, Holiday, Judaism

126 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Ellen Kushner weaves together multiple careers as a writer, radio host, teacher, performer and public speaker.

A graduate of Barnard College, she also attended Bryn Mawr College, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. In 2015, Thomas the Rhymer was published in the UK as part of the Gollancz “Fantasy Masterworks” line.

In addition, her short fiction appears regularly in numerous anthologies. Her stories have been translated into a wide variety of languages, including Japanese, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Latvian and Finnish.

Upon moving to Boston, she became a radio host for WGBH-FM. In 1996, she created Sound & Spirit, PRI’s award-winning national public radio series. With Ellen as host and writer, the program aired nationally until 2010; many of the original shows can now be heard archived online.

As a live stage performer, her solo spoken word works include Esther: the Feast of Masks, and The Golden Dreydl: a Klezmer ‘Nutcracker’ for Chanukah (with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra). In 2008, Vital Theatre commissioned her to script a full-scale theatrical version. The Klezmer Nutcracker played to sold-out audiences in New York City, with Kushner in the role of the magical Tante Miriam.

In 2012, Kushner entered the world of audiobooks, narrating and co-producing “illuminated” versions of all three of the “Riverside” novels with SueMedia Productions for Neil Gaiman Presents at Audible.com—and winning a 2013 Audie Award for Swordspoint.

Other recent projects include the urban fantasy anthology Welcome to Bordertown (co-edited with Holly Black), and The Witches of Lublin, a musical audio drama written with Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom (which one Gabriel, Gracie and Wilbur Awards in 2012). In 2015 she contributed to and oversaw the creation of the online Riverside series prequel Tremontaine for Serial Box with collaborators Joel Derfner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese and Patty Bryant.

A dauntless traveler, Ellen Kushner has been a guest of honor at conventions all over the world. She regularly teaches writing at the prestigious Clarion Workshop and the Hollins University Graduate Program in Children’s Literature.

Ellen Kushner is a co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, an organization supporting work that falls between genre categories. She lives in New York City with author and educator Delia Sherman, a lot of books, airplane and theater ticket stubs, and no cats whatsoever.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think Kushner is a kids' author by nature. This book is okay, but not very funny although I think it tries to be (Kushner is best at the clever, nasty, subtler sort of humor) and it is obvious and didactic in the manner of someone who underestimates what children are able to understand.

Q: "What makes you cry but doesn't make you sad?"
A: "An onion."

OH COME ON EVERYONE KNOWS THIS JOKE. And even if a person hadn't heard it they would figure it out easily. All the riddles are this easy, or totally stupid. I don't even care about riddles and I feel disrespected by her treatment of the sacred tradition of the riddle-game.

I also didn't like the illustrations.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to my 8-year-old over a week of bedtime stories (timed almost perfectly for Hanukkah!) and it was just lovely: sweet and warm and fun and magical. He was SO delighted by how all the pieces added up in the end! And so was I. A really perfect winter family read!

(Also, if you've ever watched the old Danny Kaye movie The Court Jester, you too will love the great little callbacks to it with one character!)

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book disappointed me, I think mostly because I bought this for my kids expecting something different from the cover illustration than what I found inside. It turned out to be a tale of a contemporary girl with ambivalent feelings about Hannukah versus Christmas. The girl is then thrust into an Alice in Wonderland-style adventure, but it felt rushed, to me.

[Debbie Notkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up on a friend's bookshelf, and it wandered home to visit me. It is a standard middle-grade portal fantasy, different only in the Jewish elements. I enjoyed it, and found it occasionally especially whimsical or visual, but basically it's predictable and perfectly good for what it is.

[Tim O'neill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one’s been on my radar for quite some time. I was enticed by the previöus cover, but couldn’t check it out at the time. I’ve even sorta half-listened to the CD, not knowing they were related. I don’t know if I’d ever’ve been inspyred to read it based on this cover, but I was always planning on reading this with the kids anyway, so once this was available, I snatched it up.

I’m interested in listening to the CD again, but this didn’t really do it for me. It’s written in a very kid-centric way, not a family classic way, so in the end the kids did like it. There were some cool elements for sure, but the part about finding which spinning dreidel was a person definitely seemed... er...borrowed from Ozma Of Oz, making this seem less like an original. I remember really enjoying the supposed inspiration for this, The Nutcracker, and so if you want that but would prefer one that took place during a Jewish holiday, I could see picking this one instead. Interestingly, tho, Sarah prefers Christmas as the beginning, but dœsn’t end the story with a new appreciätion for Chanukah!

EDIT: Now I have relistened to the concept album, and it definitely improves the experiënce. Particularly, the parallels to The Nutcracker are stronger that way, and of course the klezmer versions of the Tchaikovsky are enjoyable. The text is much shorter in the concept version, but I don’t think the expanded version in the book adds anything except getting it up to the length of a kids’s chapter book. I’d say the concept album version is worth three stars, but it’s not really an audiö book, so it makes sense that it’s not here on Goodreads.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️? Not sure if I would have enjoyed or understood this read more if I were Jewish… Unfortunately, it felt rushed and just nonsensical at times.

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

For more bookish opinions, see my blog: Craft-Cycle

A fun adventure featuring demons, riddles, magic, new friends, and a few lessons. Sara has a hard time finding her place at the family Chanukah party. She's too old for the little kids, ignored by the teens, and doesn't get along with her brother and the cousins her age. After an unfortunate mishap, she find a portal to another world, taking her ever more out of her element. In this new magical world, she sets out on a rescue mission with an unexpected companion.

Loved the interworking of different elements from Jewish culture. We get a visit from the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, learn the significance of Hebrew letters, and meet a few demons. There are also plenty of riddles to solve as Sara travels through the magical land to outsmart the demons and rescue the golden dreidel.

At the end is a short glossary including holiday greetings in Ladino, Yiddish, and Hebrew, and terms related to Jewish culture, which also give a little history.

A fun Chanukah story filled with adventure, riddles, and magic.

[Sarah Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pleasant book for, say, a six or seven year old you could read in a couple of nights. A girls gets an ornate and heavy dreydle from a mysterious aunt and in wrestling it away from her brother breaks the plasma TV. That evening she walks into plasma land and meets King Solomon's and Queen Sheeba's daughter, who is exploring life as a dreydle and is captured by demons. The protagonist rescues her, so King Solomon fixes the TV, and, more importantly, blesses her with lifelong continuation of all her good qualities such as courage.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

We just don't get enough Hanukkah stories, so I'm happy this one exists as when I was a kid they were few and far between. Yes, I'm nowhere near the target age for this book having long left behind middle school. However, I was still able to enjoy the story and could see that my nieces and nephews would like the story of a magical dreidel and the girl who has to save the princess.

A nice story filled with family, riddles, demons, beautiful illustrations, and magical worlds filled with biblical figures. Wonderful!

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really disappointed. There's so little not depressing incidentally Jewish character fiction that I was thrilled this existed. Then my inner 8 year old was heartbroken that it's this not very funny surreal not in a good way kinda sorta nutcracker take?

[Autumn]

Such a cute story! I'm not going to rate this because I am not the target audience but I thought that this book was so fun and I learned so much about Hanukkah, particularly how to play dreidel (and how to spell it too haha)

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a middle grade book, but it felt younger. I liked the idea of a modern children's book inspired by Jewish folklore, but it was very simplistic and everything was resolved too easily.

[Tepintzin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baby’s first Kabbalah story! There a lot packed into this little book, and the writing style, suited for 5-9 year olds, is just not enough for a story this rich. Should have been a series, because Jewish lore needs its own Rick Riordan.

[Ashlee Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a cute story! It also taught me a few things about a different religion and culture that I barely knew anything about! We need more stories like this one! The illustrations were also cute!

[Talia Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Normally I like holiday themed books but this one I just found kind of weird… certainly creative, but weird to the point I feel like it should have made more sense (the plot) then it did… so yea… not as many stars as some are, but still not a bad or boring book… just strange…

[Literary Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good enough for a children's book

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun holiday read.

[Silky Pitterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cute. I didn't realize it was a YA or younger.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels weird to describe this as the Jewish response to The Nutcracker...but also that's what it felt like.

[Yapha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited about a fantasy Hanukkah book, but disappointed by the actual fantasy adventure. Also, Sara was not a likeable protagonist. Not recommended.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read. Fun story about a dreidel that has echos of the story of the Nutcracker. The kids loved it

[Adrianna]

The Nutcracker but make it Jewish and steeped in folklore. My favorite part was the glossary in the back

[Jack Arline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that you read when you want a quick read or when youre in a reading slump.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, fast fantasy, early chapter book, silly adventure, girl hero.

[Sarah Berk · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay - I definitely wanted more from it, but still glad it exists. It was kind of cute, I could imagine my school age self enjoying it.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Golden Dreydl is an interesting Chanukah themed fantasy novel for children. There is an album that goes along with it. The book and album put a Jewish twist on the Nutcracker story.

Sara, the heroine, of The Golden Dreydl has quite the bad attitude about "having" to celebrate Chanukah and "not getting to" celebrate Christmas like all her friends. But to the family gathering she will go--no matter the fuss. (Sara has an older brother, Seth).

Readers briefly meet Sara, Seth, and their many, many cousins. The "kids" of the family are playing dreydl. Sara is still in a mood. A mood that isn't exactly improved when Tante Miriam shows up with presents for one and all. It's not her fault, mind you, Sara even seems a little inclined to like her present: a golden dreydl. But Seth and her get into a bit of a fight. The dreydl ends up flying through the air and hitting the TV and breaking it. That puts most everyone in a mood.

Readers next join Sara later that evening, for a fantasy adventure. She follows a young girl--a girl claiming to be the Golden Dreydl--through the hole in the TV, I believe. They arrive in a fantasy land, of sorts, with demons, peacocks, a fool, and King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. There is also much talk of a Tree of Life.

Sara is given a quest, of sorts, to save the girl from the demons/demon king. She has the Fool to help her. A few riddle games are played. First, between Sara and the Fool, and, then later between the Demon King and Sara and the Fool.

For those readers who enjoy fantasy novels, going to different worlds, doing quests, this one is enjoyable enough. If you get a chance to listen to the music, it will probably help you 'enjoy' it even more.

[Kes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a cute children's book.

Sara is Jewish. She wants to celebrate Christmas like her friends, but isn't allowed. She has a brother, who she has the usual semi-antagonistic relationship common to that age. She goes over to her relatives for Chanukah and plays with her cousins (though she is out of sorts during the game). It's a very Jewish portrayal of the holiday. I liked reading about the big family and the food.

Conflict happens when their Aunt Miriam comes by and gives out presents. Sara is given a golden dreydl. Scuffling with her brother, it flies into her Aunt Leah's TV and smashes it. The party winds down and people go to sleep. At night, the dreydl brings her into another world, where the dreydl is kidnapped by demons. The dreydl is revealed to be the daughter of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who bears the four letters from the Tree of Life on her. If the dreydl is not rescued and the letters of the Tree of Life not restored to the Tree, the Tree (and therefore the world) will die.

So of course, Sara rescues the dreydl (with help from the Fool). She is granted a wish and she wishes that the TV is repaired. Sara is then returned home.

This is a cute book. I loved the description of Jewish culture. Unfortunately, I'm not the right age group for this book, and the pacing bored me. 2 stars.

[Catalina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: Sara refuses to play old games associated with Chanukah and she dismisses them as boring and predictable. Everything turns around when her mystical Tante Miriam comes to the party and gives her a golden dreydl. While trying to retrieve it form her brother, Sara breaks the new flat-screen television that her aunt just got. The broken TV proves to be a gateway to a magical world, where Sara is pulled in having to save the magical golden dreydl from the hands of the demons.
Peace Perspective: Although the story of the Golden Dreydl has many personal-level or ideological conflicts, the most important peace related aspect could be the inner peace one: Sara is more at peace with herself at the end of the story, when she appreciates more her Jewish identity and she realizes that she is a special human being.

[Karla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book on sale at a local store and loved the title. I read the back and was sure that I would enjoy it. Perhaps I expected it to be a bit in the same camp as Jane Yolen's books that connected familiarly modern things with the Holocaust. This book does depict a young Jewish girl who is a little bored with Chanukah and, like most tweens... wanting to fit in with her friends. Since her friends are celebrating Christmas, she feels left out and unipressed with her family's less glitzy Chanukah celebrations. She receives a one-of-a-kind Chanukah gift from her Tante Miriam-- a golden dreydl that spins her into an adventure. I loved the part of the story in which the demons all move backwards, and the reason why that is the case. I liked that the riddles were silly. This is a pretty quick read. It is light and pleasant.

[Sam (Hissing Potatoes) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A fun book that's geared more for a children's audience but can be read by anyone. It is a short, Hanukkah-inspired fairytale. The main character journeys to a magical world to save a princess. It's really cute, and it is heavily Jewish.