Celebrating the Illinois Reading Council's 25th anniversary year, this 2-part monograph presents 11 papers on diverse aspects of reading and literacy. Papers in the first part, called "Historical Reflections and Challenges," are: "The Illinois Reading Council Celebrates 25 Years" (John W. Logan); "The 'Illinois Reading Council Journal': Celebrating the Past, Challenging the Future" (Roberta L. Berglund); "Twenty-Two Years since Charles Read's 'Preschool Children's Knowledge of English Phonology': What Inventive Spellers Have Taught Us" (Donald J. Richgels); and "Standardized Reading Tests: Then and Now" (Peggy VanLeirsburg). In part 2, entitled "Facilitating Change," papers are: "The Reading-Writing Relationship: Empirical Evidence for the Reconceptualization of Literacy" (June E. Barnhart); "Family Histories: A Connection to the Past and the Future" (Barbara Kutterer Haas); "New Ideas for Reading Group Placement: No More 'Buzzards!'" (Mary Ann Wham); "Venturing into the Computer Lab: What Do You Pack for a Quest?" (Janet M. Beyersdorfer); "The Use of the Reading Diary for Obtaining Reading Behavior Data among Adults" (M. Cecil Smith & Norman A. Stahl); "Revising the Reading/Language Arts Report Card" (Char Hallmann & John Logan); and "ICARE: Developing Positive Attitudes toward Reading" (Eugene H. Cramer). (RS)