Mr. Puffball: Stunt Cat to the Stars

by Constance Lombardo

Summary From GoodReads

In this hilarious illustrated adventure meet Mr. Puffball, a medium-size feline with a big dream! With amazing humor that appeals to both kids and adults as well as funny illustrations throughout the story, Mr. Puffball: Stunt Cat to the Stars is perfect for dreamers, movie buffs, and fans of Timmy Failure and Stick Dog.

He's a hero for today. Or possibly tomorrow. He's a cat. He's awesome. And . . . wait for it . . . he's going to Hollywood to become a famous movie star! Follow Mr. Puffball on his trip cross-country. (Look at all the postcards to Mom!) See him stumble upon Hobowood! (Not as glamorous as Hollywood, but full of beans.) Watch him land at last in Hollywood, where he meets a cast of thousands (or at least half a dozen) and catapults himself into the next best thing to being a famous movie star: working as a stunt cat to his movie star hero, El Gato!

Thoughts on the Book

This is another ARC I had grabbed at BEA.  I had walked by the table and my friend showed me a different book she had grabbed from the table so I ran back to get that one and saw Mr. Puffball next to it and just couldn't resist grabbing a copy, so glad I did!

My Review

This story is about a kitten, Mr. Puffball, who dreams of being an actor.  At the age of 14 months (he's no longer a kitten and old enough to make his own decisions!) he leaves his New Jersey home travel to Hollywood.  The trip is detailed in postcards that he sends back to his mother.  Then once he arrives in Hollywood it's all about him trying to make it in the business and meeting his heroes.

This book was really cute, and I absolutely loved the illustrations.  The story itself was funny, but adding in the silly illustrations just made it that much better.  I loved the postcards that were sent to his mother, the address cracked me up, Little Yellow House, NJ, USA, it's amazing that his mother received the postcards.  How Mr. Puffball wrote her name changed with each postcard too, some were just My Mom, others were more along the lines of Mom of Mr. Puffball.

I also loved all the pop culture references turned cat, like Hairy Purrer, Catsablanca, The Sound of Meowsic, and Tabby Gaga to name a few. 

Despite all of the silliness of the book the story was told beautifully, the boring parts were cut from being in prose and a picture or two (or several) outlined what had happened.  Lessons in form of a game board, cross country travel in form of a few postcards, the course of filming detailed in brief  descriptions and illustrations of stunts.

The only thing I wasn't completely enamored with was how Mr. Puffball never realized how truly horrible El Gato was to him, his friends saw it, but Mr. Puffball never did, even after he realized that El Gato wasn't as nice and wonderful as he first thought.

The morals of the book were also really good, especially for the age group it's aimed for.  Mean people have a reason why they're mean, give them a chance before completely ruling them off.  Heroes don't always live up to the pedestal we put them on, but that doesn't mean that they're not worthy of being our hero.  Just because something is difficult, or seems impossible, or you fail after a brief success don't give up, keep trying and you just may make it.   

All in all I give this book a 9/10.  This book was great, everything you could want out of a kids book, humor, good lessons, and a lovable cast.