Papers in this collection focus on diverse issues in literacy ranging from motivation to wordless books to professional development schools. Papers in the collection, and their authors, are as follows: "The New Literacy and Reading Workshop: How Comfortable Is Too Comfortable?" (Jeanne Henry); "Fostering Reading Motivation: Insights from Theory and Research" (Linda B. Gambrell and Rose Marie Codling); "Standards for the English Language Arts: Stylish but Stillborn" (Thomas Cloer, Jr.); "Skill Standards: Establishing a Framework for Basic Skills" (Eunice N. Askov); "Balanced Reading Programs: Exploring Their Essentials" (Mona W. Matthews; Jerry L. Johns; Victoria J. Risko; Marian Tonjes); "Wordless Books: Promise and Possibilities, A Genre Comes of Age" (Sarah Dowhower); "Reading Instruction in the Middle School Mathematics Classroom" (Chet H. Laine; Terry L. Bullock; Bob Drake); "The Relationship of Standardized Reading Scores to Children's Self-Perception as Readers" (Thomas Cloer, Jr. and Shana Y. Ross); "Perspectives on Schema and Reading Comprehension: Content or Formal Schema? What Promises?" (Samuel S. Myers); "The Making of a Researcher: A Self-Study of a Mentoring Relationship" (Josephine Peyton Young and Donna E. Alvermann); "Storytelling to Promote Emergent Literacy: Prospective Teachers' Storytelling Experiences and Expectations" (Reed Motley and Richard Telfer); "Reflecting Retelling: Perceptions of Preservice Teachers and Implications for Instruction" (Marie F. Doan Holbein and Jane Brady Matanzo); "Seeking Readers: Integrating Gay and Lesbian Texts into a Developmental Reading and Writing Course" (Michaeline Lane); "Empowering Teachers through a Professional Development School and Classroom Action Research" (Joyce C. Fine); "The Perils and Promises of One School/College Partnership" (Marilyn G. Eanet); "A Literacy-Focused Professional Development Academy" (Shannon W. Kossack and Joyce C. Fine); "Teacher Training and the Effects of Past Experience on Preservice Teacher's Concerns for the Role of the Internet in Planning and Instruction" (Anne L. Mallery and Jane F. Rudden); "World Wide Web: Proposals and Pilots for Connecting Schools to Authentic Commerce in Literature, Ideas, Humanitarianism, and the Free Market" (Anthony V. Manzo; Amy Barnhill; Andrew Lang; Ula C. Manzo); "The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age" (Wayne Otto; Rick Erickson; Ken Smith); and "Reaction to 'The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age'" (Eunice N. Askov). (NKA)