The Phoenix Award of the Children's Literature Association each year honors a book for children first published twenty years earlier that deserves special recognition for its literary merit. This volume, third in a set begun with the 1965 award, covers the years 1995 to 1999 and is a mini-library of essays, speeches, bibliographies and biographical sketches surrounding the five award winners and six honor books. It contains the twenty-four essays presented at the Association's annual conference on the Phoenix Award-winning books and on the honor books as well. Information is provided about each author, including a list of his or her works for children, and the acceptance speeches given by the award-winning authors are reprinted. Essay writers include such respected names in children's literature criticism as Jon Stott, Linnea Hendrickson, and Anita Tarr. This scholarly work is directed to the professions that attend to children's literature - librarians, teacher educators, language scholars, practicing teachers, teachers of children's literature, other writers and parents. It also serves as a guide for all those who care about timeless books and wish to make them available to children and young people.