Blasingame joins Kids Need to Read Foundation board

<p>ASU’s James Blasingame has been named to the board of directors for Kids Need to Read Foundation. The nonprofit group established in August 2007 by children’s author PJ Haarsma and actor Nathan Fillion is dedicated to improving children’s literacy.<br /><br />Blasingame, a former high school English teacher who pursued his doctoral degree after nearly 20 years of K-12 teaching, is an associate professor of English education in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He teaches writing and literature instruction for secondary school teachers.<br /><br />Named the ASU Parents Association’s 2008 Professor of the Year, Blasingame also was one of 11 faculty members to be given the 2007 Parents’ Association Professor of the Year Special Recognition Award. He received the International Reading Association's 2008 Arbuthnot Award for the outstanding university professor of children's and young adult literature. In 2007, he received ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award for the Humanities.<br /><br />Blasingame is president-elect of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, an independent assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English. The Assembly publishes <i>The ALAN Review</i>, which has a circulation of 2,500. Blasingame has served as coeditor of the journal since 2003.<br /><br />Kids Need to Read donates books to schools, libraries and other organizations in need. It promotes and encourages literacy and a love of reading in children. The organization raises funds to purchase books for children through weekly eBay auctions, an online store selling Kids Need to Read merchandise. More information at <a href="http://www.kidsneedtoread.org">www.kidsneedtoread.org</a>.</p&gt;