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Valery Badio

Macmillan's Children, Henry Holt BYR

My Manuscript Wish List®

Valery Badio is a Haitian-American assistant editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. She is looking for young adult, middle grade and graphic novels for all ages.

Thematically, she love stories featuring coming of age; girly and/or queer friend groups; first loves (and heartbreaks like in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before); immigrant or intergenerational families (especially BIPOC or Caribbean); anything illustrated (like Phoebe’s Diary); flawed and awkward characters; mental health; the spooky and the whimsical; magical realism; quirky schools and teachers; fun murder mysteries; mother-daughter relationships; and Stranger Things like adventures.

For middle grade & YA, she especially like rom coms, mysteries, horror, thriller, speculative fiction, contemporary realistic fiction, and things that lean paranormal. She’s a fan of witty and self deprecating voices, high yet realistic stakes, and literary writing with commercial appeal.
She would really love to find something that is a fun romcom retelling of a piece of classic literature like Mismatched, Gwen and Art are Not in Love, or 10 Things I Hate About You.
She’s usually not the best editor for most high fantasy or high sci-fi. But she never says never! If there’s anything that seems to be a fit thematically but is in one of these genres, she’d still love to see it.

Fun facts about me:

Valery has a black cat named Humphrey.

Submission Guidelines

Agented submissions only

Vital Info

valery.badio@macmillan.com

Linkedin

Editor

Fiction:

BIPOC Literature, Caribbean Literature, Children's, Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Horror, Literary, Magical Realism, Middle Grade, Picture Books, Young Adult

Favorite sub-genres:

Contemporary YA, Cozy mysteries, Epistolary, Fairytale Retellings, Feminist Horror, Gothic, Graphic Novels (for all ages), Illustrated, LGBTQ+, Literary YA & MG, MG contemporary, Magical Realism, Middle Grade Mystery, Mothers and Daughters, RomCom, Romance, Slice of life, Speculative Fiction, YA Rom-Coms, YA horror, coming of age, contemporary middle grade, crossover appeal, dark academia, dramedy, friendship, queer horror, spooky mg, witches

I’d like the next…

  • Mr. Watson’s Chickens by Jarrett Dapier and Andrea Tsurumi
  • Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden by Christy Mandin
  • Timid by Jonathan Todd
  • To All the Boys trilogy
  • The Davenports by Krystal Marquis
  • Lisa Frankenstein
  • Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
  • Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi
  • Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith
  • Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman
  • Clueless
  • 90s Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Not for me…

  • High fantasy
  • High Sci-fi (speculative is great though!)

My favorites include…

Books:

  • I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
  • Emma by Jane Austen
  • Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin
  • The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
  • Sula by Toni Morrison

Movies:

  • Bridget Jones’ Diary
  • My Big Fat Greek Wedding
  • Moonlight
  • Jennifer’s Body
  • Anything Studio Ghibli
  • Sinners