Zoom Upstream

Zoom the cat follows a mysterious trail through a bookshelf to Egypt, where he joins his friend Maria in a search for his Uncle Roy

Kindergarten-Grade 3-In this his third adventure, Zoom, a cat, follows a magical passage through a bookshelf filled with classics of ancient literature and winds up in ancient Egypt. He rescues his friend Maria, a woman who has been wrapped up as a mummy by spooky Egyptian cats, and together they set off to find Zoom's Uncle Roy, a sea captain. Readers never learn how or why Maria has been captured, but this fits in with the almost surrealistic nature of the tale. As with Zoom Away and Zoom at Sea (both HarperCollins, 1993), an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue pervades the story. Beddow's black-and-white pencil drawings create an appropriately eerie mood, particularly in the way they make use of shadow and light. Subtle details within the illustrations add humor, and other scenes provide background information. Uncle Roy announces at the conclusion that they will all be heading off to search for the source of the Nile, which suggests that another book may follow. That might disappoint a few youngsters, since this adventure seems to have been little more than an introduction to a larger quest. Most, however, will enjoy Zoom Upstream and eagerly await the continuation of the young cat's journey.
Steven Engelfried, West Lynn Library,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-7. This third (and final) adventure of Zoom the cat takes him to Egypt, where Zoom and his human friend, Maria, search for his uncle Roy. Beddows' wonderful pencil illustrations detail the ensuing adventure. Detail is the operative word; the intricate pictures are both wildly imaginative and full of minute particulars--titles on the spines of books, hieroglyphics, a mouse peeking out of a hole. The story itself, in which Zoom follows the clues until he finds Uncle Roy, who has made his escape from a mummy-filled catacomb, is rather flat, but the art elevates the book beyond many in the genre. Readers are invited to decipher the endpapers, where the story of the first cat of the pharaoh is told in hieroglyphics. Ilene Cooper