Sylvia M. Vardell is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University and is recipient of the ALA Scholastic Library Publishing Award. She teaches graduate courses in literature for children and young adults and authored the seminal textbook, Children’s Literature in Action: A Librarian’s Guide and has co-edited The Poetry Friday Anthology series and Poetry Friday Power Book series with Janet Wong. Her current work focuses on poetry for children, including the widely recognized blog, PoetryforChildren and editing a new anthology, A World Full of Poems. She has served on national award committees including the ALA Caldecott, Odyssey, Sibert, and Legacy committees, co-edited the international journal of children’s literature, Bookbird, and currently serves on the IBBY Executive Committee. She has conducted over 150 presentations at state, regional, national, and international conferences and taught at the University of Zimbabwe as a Fulbright scholar.