One night, after the drei­del mak­er leaves his shop, the let­ters Nun, Hey, and Shin con­spire to hide the sound­ly sleep­ing Gimels—since the Gimels are everyone’s favorite Hebrew let­ter and they always win. ​“Think about it,” says one Shin to the oth­er let­ters, ​“with­out the Gimels, the rules of the game would have to change.” When the drei­del mak­er and his appren­tice arrive in the morn­ing to fin­ish carv­ing the wood­en drei­dels and add the Hebrew let­ters, the Gimels are nowhere to be found. But then the Nuns, Heys, and Shins over­hear the drei­del mak­er explain­ing how impor­tant and spe­cial each of the let­ters are, and the next night they put the Gimels back where they belong. The drei­del mak­er is able to com­plete the drei­dels, with each let­ter in its prop­er place, just in time for Hanukkah.

The high­ly styl­ized, dig­i­tal car­toon illus­tra­tions are col­or­ful and live­ly, although they might strain cred­i­bil­i­ty. When the let­ters come alive, they are drawn as lit­tle blob-like crea­tures with large expres­sive eyes (some wear­ing glass­es), col­or­ful T‑shirts, and bird­like feet. Once affixed to the drei­dels, they are just plain let­ters. Read­ers will also have to sus­pend dis­be­lief when the Gimels all sleep through the entire two days and two nights of the sto­ry while the oth­er let­ters are wide awake. A brief expla­na­tion of the Hanukkah sto­ry is inte­grat­ed into the text and instruc­tions for play­ing drei­del are append­ed. While the book might appeal to those look­ing for fresh, new titles for the hol­i­day, it’s unlike­ly to stand out in the already over­crowd­ed Hanukkah bookshelf.