Sylvia Vardell is a Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University where she teaches graduate courses in literature for children and young adults. She is recipient of the ALA Scholastic Library Publishing Award and the TWU Distinction in Scholarship Award. She has published 10 books on literature for children and over 100 journal articles for teachers, librarians, administrators, and parents. She authored the seminal textbook, Children’s Literature in Action: A Librarian’s Guide, as well as Poetry Aloud Here!, The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists, 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 her nationally recognized blog, PoetryforChildren and a regular feature on poetry for ALA’s Book Links magazine. She has served on several national award committees including the prestigious Caldecott Award committee, the ALA Odyssey Award for audiobooks, the ALA Sibert Award for informational literature, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction, and the NCTE Award for Poetry. She currently chairs the ALA Children’s Literature Legacy Award committee. She serves on the Executive Committee of the International Board on Books for Young People and co-edited their international journal of children’s literature, Bookbird. She has conducted over 150 presentations at state, regional, national, and international conferences, received grants from YALSA, NCTE, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and taught at the University of Zimbabwe as a Fulbright scholar. She lives in Texas, loves to travel, and is a fan of all things Star Wars.
Sylvia Vardell 