Valery Badio

Macmillan's Children, Henry Holt BYR

My Manuscript Wish List®

Hi! My name is Valery Badio and I am an assistant editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. I am actively looking to acquire middle grade and YA. I’m also looking for special picture books about topics that don’t get a lot of attention or silly ones about dealing with big emotions.

In MG and YA, I look for romcoms, thrillers with lots of twists, mysteries, horror, and all things paranormal. I’m always interested in first loves and heartbreaks, complicated friendships, tropes done well, folklore and mythology, and when genres are subverted. I love books that feature flawed main characters and underrepresented cultures. I’m drawn to high yet realistic stakes, and is always eager to read atmospheric prose that transports you right into the characters’ worlds.

If you have a story featuring any of the following, I’d love to see it!

girly and/or queer friend groups
middle school crush stories
immigrant or intergenerational families (especially BIPOC or Caribbean)
epistolary form
thrillers and horrors set in small towns or secluded communities (I’d love to see something set in Appalachia or a Native territory)
the spooky and the whimsical
magical realism
grotesque side of girlhood
high concepts with literary writing
unreliable narrators
cozy mysteries
grounded speculative (like Get Out)
mother-daughter relationships
witty and self deprecating voices

I would also really like 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.