Mo Willems, creator of the revolutionary, award-winning, best-selling Elephant & Piggie books, has another breakout beginning-reader series. An ensemble cast of Squirrels, Acorns, and pop-in guests hosts a page-turning extravaganza. Each book features a funny, furry adventure AND bonus jokes, quirky quizzes, nutty facts, and so, so many Squirrels. In I Want to Sleep Under the Stars , Zoom Squirrel dreams of sleeping under the night stars. The Squirrel pals are excited to help! But will their encouragement be enough―or too much? Do you know more about sleeping under the stars than the Squirrels do? You will by the end of this book! K-Gr 2-The Unlimited Squirrels return for even more "acorn-y" fun, and there are "emote-acorns" punctuating the story as emojis do. True to established series structure, this is an easy reader told in interconnected vignettes with those acorn-y jokes in between, and a Table of Condiments so nothing gets lost. Zoom Squirrel dreams of sleeping under the stars, and Zip Squirrel is determined to help make that happen! But when Zip recruits all the squirrels to help encourage Zoom, the plan goes awry. The main story is followed by two additional (mostly) expository vignettes on the sleep habits of animals and the movement of the stars, and all of this is tied together with zany humor. Clean, crisp character drawings with sparse text lettered in various sizes and weights are encapsulated in speech bubbles. Educators know that Willems's simplicity is deceiving-the vocabulary and punning are unforgettable language lessons in disguise. This is a fun mix of fiction and expository writing that will appeal to both children and adults-conducted by characters with names like Wink, Flink, and Klink, and populated by an esprit de corps with bushy tails (although Flappy Squirrel is a bird). VERDICT A first purchase where previous titles by Willems are popular-where are they not?-Jessica Caron, Bancroft Sch., MAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. PRAISE FOR WHO IS THE MYSTERY READER? "Willems' cartoony characters are as goofy and appealing as ever . . . The clueless squirrels fail to uncover the mystery readers' identities, but beginning readers will certainly puzzle this out as they are enjoying comic conventions (speech bubbles, panels, varied font sizes, etc.) and frequent metafictive asides. Smart, sassy, and laugh-out-loud fun; Willems remains at the top of his game."― Booklist Mo Willems, a #1 New York Times best-selling author and illustrator, has been awarded three Caldecott Honors for his picture books and two Theodor Seuss Geisel Medals and five Geisel Honors for his celebrated Elephant & Piggie series. Mo is the inaugural Education Artist-in-Residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He began his career as a writer and animator on Sesame Street , where he garnered six Emmy Awards. He lives in Massachusetts with his family. Learn more at pigeonpresents.com.