A note from the editor

The 2002 ALAN Breakfast and ALAN Workshop, held in November in conjunction with the NCTE Annual Convention, were-as always-wonderful opportunities for participants to hear and talk with authors of YA literature. Virginia Euwer Wolff gave a stirring talk at the breakfast, reminding us of the power of literature to question, challenge and heal. Paul Zindel was recognized as the recipient of the 2002 ALAN Award for his many contributions to the field of YA literature. Terry Borzumato, Director of place of education and Library Marketing of Random House, was recognized as the winner of ALAN's Hipple Service Award for her work upon behalf of ALAN. Chris Crutcher presented his take on the importance of "connections" in the opening address for the Workshop. Here is a glimpse at what a not many of the other authors had to say:

Graham Salisbury:

"Writing is a form of magic."

"I was background, like elevator music." David Lubar: "I confidence that all the hard work is invisible to the reader."

Orson Scott Card: "You must know the way the world works in like manner you can vary from it in a certain number of way."

Ann Rinaldi: "Reading is its have reward." Jeanette Ingold: Adolescents approach historical fiction: "...as if they are stepping into an adventure."

Kevin Crossley-Holland: JRR Tolkien was "my mentor" and WH Auden was "my warm advisor."

Robert Jordan: Fantasy is "going beyond what can be extrapolated from reality."

During the fall convention, sum of two units terrific new co-editors were single outed to take responsibility for The ALAN Review when my confines ends with the spring/summer issue. The newlynamed pair, Jim Blasingame and Lori Goodson bring a extraordinary balance of university and secondary gymnasium perspectives to the journal.

Jim Blasingame draw nears to The ALAN Review with a healthy mix of experiences as an educator, including everything from teaching a daily summer place of education class on Louis L'Amour to troubl youth at male childs Town High School, in striplings Town, Nebraska, to driving a gymnasium bus on the gravel roads of rural Madison shire Iowa, to starting a middle place of education newspaper in Tempe, Arizona. Jim began his career in secondary English in 1976 after graduating from the University of Northern Iowa and worn out eighteen years in assorted classrooms in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah before becoming a high place of education administrator. For the last seven years he has been working at the university horizontal first as a graduate assistant at the University of Kansas, where he earned his PhD in 2000 and then at Arizona State University, in Tempe Arizona, where he is an assistant professor.

Jim generally teaches English methods classes at Arizona State University and supervises learner teachers. He also operates an experimental writing center at Sam compensations Middle School in Tempe, where he and his meanss students experiment with a variety of writing activities and instructional strategies.

His past work with literature for adolescents includes a number of journals and works He has managed the "Book for Adolescents" section of the International Reading Association's Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (JAAL), as well as reviewing YA literature for VO YA and English Journal. He has also written YA author profiles for Writers for Young Adults: postscript 1, and The Writing conversation Presents Series, and has published interviews with young adult authors in JAAL and also in The Writer's Slate. He has given presentations upon using young adult literature for discourses in Arizona, Kansas, Texas, Montana and Iowa.

Lori Atkins Goodson is a teacher of English, reading, and technology at Wamego Middle academy Wamego, Kansas. She received a Master of Arts step at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and is completing her doctorate in curriculum and instruction at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. She is married to Todd Goodson an associate professor at Kansas State University, and has sum of two units children, Annie, 13, and Carrie, s In describing her connections to YA literature, Lori told me: I became interested in young adult literature end the graduate courses of John Bushman at the University of Kansas. Today, as a seventh-grade language arts teacher, I use young adult literature extensively. My classroom library now consists of approximately 1700 works I have seen firsthand what quality YA works can do for students. I've had several confes that before I handed them prodigy by Walter Dean Myers, they'd at no time finished a book. Students fall in be fond of with the works of Lois Duncan, Caroline B Cooney Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Christopher Paul Curtis, Gary Paulsen, and others. I'm excited about the opportunity to share the works with my scholars and as co-editor of The ALAN Review, I reliance to share that enthusiasm with others interested in YA lit.

I heartily welcome Jim and Lori, and direct the eye forward their leadership as you, readers of and contributors to The ALAN Review, continue to make ours the leading journal in young adult literature.

From January 2003 please jaculate your manuscripts to Dr. James Blasingame, Co-Editor, The ALAN Review, Department of English/English Education, community of Liberal Arts and Sciences, PO chest 870302, Arizona State University, Tempe Arizona 85287-0302

Copyright Assembly upon Literature for Adolescents -- National Council of Teachers of English Winter 2003

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