Growing up my parents always asked me to be critical of the media I consumed, whether it was the animated movies I would rotate through at Blockbuster or assigned reading for school. At the time I thought it was corny. But I began to understand that stories and who gets to tell them are a direct reflection of our world and in turn influence our world. So I came to book publishing with a desire to be someone who helps shape those stories so that readers aren’t desperately hunting for pieces of themselves in books the way I used to, but instead have full, complete narratives with them as the focus.

Jess Harold is an Editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers where she edits picture books, graphic novels, middle grade, and young adult novels. She loves books with gorgeous art and prose that celebrate the world we live in. These days she is perfecting her baking skills in her apartment and her farming skills in Stardew Valley.

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