Review Detail

Stuntcat to the Stars (Mr. Puffball #1)

Middle Grade Fiction 159

How to Be a Star (if you're a cat!)

October 14, 2015 (Updated: June 29, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Mr. Puffball has always dreamed of being a movie stars, just like his idol, El Gato. He practices at home, but eventually realized he must travel to Hollywood to make his dreams come true. After a long trip west (which he documents with postcards to his mother), he first ends up with a bunch of hobo cats. They soon send him on his way. Unsure of where to start, Mr. Puffball is lucky enough to run into a group of former movie cats who help him learn to sing, dance, and style his look. He goes on auditions, and is eventually cast as an extra in a movie starring El Gato. Trying to impress the movie star cat, Mr. Puffball climbs on a pile of boxes, falls spectacularly, and is cast as El Gato's stunt double. El Gato has some lindsay Lohan type problems with being overly demanding and difficult to work with, but Mr. Puffball saves him, and the two work together to increase Mr. Puffball's Hollywood credentials.

Good Points

This is a notebook novel, with lots of drawings of Mr. Puffball and his adventures, and notebook novels are ALWAYS popular. It also had much more plot than many notebook novels, more like Barnett's The Terrible Two or Angelberger's Origami Yoda. There is a glossary at the end with the Hollywood references and vocabulary; Mr. Puffball's process of breaking into film is actually rather informative. There's a lot of humor and plays on titles and actor's names. The illustrations are definitely goofy, and readers will laugh at the absurd adventures of "El Gato".