After 13 years as young readers’ editor at Kirkus Reviews, Vicky Smith returned to her first love, librarianship, in 2021 to take a position as access services director at Portland Public Library in Maine. She has served on numerous young readers’ award committees, including Newbery, Caldecott, and Sibert, and she continues to review for Kirkus, Horn Book, and Audiofile. When she’s not reading or being a librarian, she tends to her backyard bees in South Portland.