Books That Don't Bore 'Em: Young Adult Books That Speak to This Generation
Jim Blasingame is an associate professor of English at Arizona State University.  He is past co-editor of The ALAN Review and creates the Books for Adolescents pages of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.  He is the author of Books That Don’t Bore ‘Em: Young Adult Literature for Today’s Generation (Scholastic, 2007), Gary Paulsen (Teen Reads: Student Companions to Young Adult Literature) (Greenwood Press 2007), Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools (Pearson, Prentice-Hall 2004), and They Rhymed with Their Boots On: A Teachers’ Guide to Cowboy Poetry (The Writing Conference, Inc. 2000).  He has published over 70 interviews with authors of adolescent literature and over 200 book reviews.  Dr. Blasingame was a high school English teacher and administrator for 21 years, in Iowa, Utah, and Kansas before completing his doctorate at the University of Kansas in 2000.  He has been at ASU for nine years, teaching courses in adolescent literature and methods of teaching writing, as well as supervising student teachers.  He was the 2007 ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Professor for the Humanities, and the 2008 International Reading Association Arbuthnot Award recipient for university teacher of children’s literature.  He is the 2008 ASU Parent’s Foundation Professor of the Year.   Jim is President-elect of ALAN, the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE and will serve during 2010.  He is the director of the new National Writing Project site, the Central Arizona Writing Project.