Our Team
Aladdin’s team has extensive expertise in every category of children's books, with a focus on commercial fiction for middle grade readers.
Valerie Garfield is Senior Vice President and Publisher of Licensed, Novelty, and Branded Publishing at Simon & Schuster, overseeing the Aladdin, Boynton Bookworks, Little Simon, Pulse, and Simon Spotlight imprints.
Kristin started her long career in children’s publishing at Knopf and spent many years at HarperCollins and Penguin Random House before happily landing at Aladdin. She has had the honor of working with many award-winning and bestselling authors, and her experience ranges from developing multi-book programs for major movie releases, to creating new editions of beloved classics and contemporary favorites, to editing bestselling new series for today’s readers. Her recent titles for Aladdin include installments in the City Spies and Sherlock Society series by James Ponti; Away by Megan Freeman; and Not Nothing by Gayle Forman.
A lifelong book enthusiast, Kristin firmly believes in the power of a good story, and still has her very first library card. She’s excited to continue building Aladdin as the home for commercially successful middle-grade fiction.
On the fiction side: contemporary middle-grade fiction with an eye on building representation for the LGBTQ, gender non-conforming, neurodivergent, and physically challenged communities. I’m particularly drawn to quirky characters who are looking to figure out (or create) their place in the world. I like stories with honesty and heart; books that can make readers laugh, cry, think, and feel. I love a strong, smart, nerdy protagonist, strong sibling stories, and snarky humor, books that will help keep middle-grade boys devoted to reading, and commercial novels in verse. I am not a big fantasy or science fiction fan, but appreciate “lite” entres into those categories that are driven by an accessible protagonist or strong voice.
Kristin’s Titles Include:
Kara Sargent joined Aladdin in 2020. She is an S&S Children’s alumni, having worked in Simon Spotlight as Editorial Director until 2015, after which she worked at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as Editor in Chief of Brand, Licensed, and IP Publishing. Kara believes books are the perfect vehicle for introducing new stories, worlds, and perspectives to kids. She loves working closely with her authors to help develop their vision. She is thrilled to be back at S&S focusing on commerical standalone middle grade novels and new series for Aladdin.
What’s on Kara’s Wish List?
The simple answer is, Kara is always looking for the book or series that will introduce readers to their new best friend, or the new friend who can make them feel seen, understood, and safe.... or just make them laugh. She believes reading is the ultimate escape and looks for books that celebrate that.
Fantasy, dystopian, mystery, and age appropriate horror are among her favorite genres for middle grade.
Kara's Titles Include:
Aly Heller is an Executive Editor with the Aladdin imprint, where she is lucky enough to acquire and edit a range of titles, currently focusing on commercial middle-grade. She is drawn to stand-alone stories and series from underrepresented and diverse voices that center evergreen experiences and joy, complicated/toxic friendship and sibling dynamics, books that will make a reader feel a little less alone in the world. Aly does select non-fiction middle-grade books about historical and contemporary figures who have made an impact and continue to inspire. In her spare time, Aly loves baking, traveling, dancing, Broadway and listening to a variety of podcasts. Tweet her @EditorAlysonH.
What’s on Aly’s Wish List?
Aly’s focus is on commercial middle-upper middle grade fiction. In the middle-grade space, she is drawn to stories that explore complicated family bonds and/or complicated friendships; reimagined 90s/2000s popular movies for today’s tween audience; stories that have an adoptee as the main character (but the story itself is not about finding one’s birth parent(s)). She would also love to find mysteries/thrillers for middle-grade and upper-middle grade readers, rom-coms, action-adventure, and historical fiction that still has a contemporary/commercial voice and feel. She’d also love to find a new twist on the locked room mystery trope. For non-fiction, I am interested in exploring either unknown areas of historical events or more unknown areas of a historical figure’s life (or within an innovative format), that still has a contemporary, accessible voice.
Regardless of category, Aly would love for any of the above to center diverse voices and underrepresented communities, and intersectional identities.
Aly’s Titles Include:
Jessica Smith joined Simon & Schuster in September 2016. Other than getting lost in a great book, her favorite activities are laughing, daydreaming, and telling her resident cats Hank, Wilson, and Stormy and various foster cats and kittens how unbearably cute they are.
What’s on Jessi’s Wish List?
Middle grade and chapter books (no picture books, please!); Stories with a combination of whimsy, quirk, humor, and heart; Layered, atmospheric stories in the vein of Jodi Lynn Anderson’s Thirteen Witches; Middle grade rom-coms that capture the thrill (and awkwardness!) of middle-school/young high-school crushes; Stories pertaining to animals—mythical or real, but always rescue; Stories that will make me cry (happy, sad, or bittersweet tears—I love them all!).
Jessi’s Titles Include:
What’s on Anna’s Wish List?
Anna’s Titles Include:
Vrinda joined Simon & Schuster in May 2023 after completing her B.A. in English Literature at Emory University, her M.S. in Publishing at New York University, and several internships at publishing companies. When her nose is not in a book, you can find her writing, taking photographs, or playing board games with friends.