A genre is a category of literature which is defined by the pattern or structure of a literary work.

Each genre contains universal elements of form and content. However, books belonging to a particular genre share the same characteristics of plot, tone, mood, settings, characters and themes. There may be several sub-genres within each genre. These literary elements are the same for both children's and young adult literature.

Category:

Brief Description: Are considered a format and not a genre. They are a format

Picture books

in which art and text are interdependent. All genres appear in picture books. Condensed language, expression of imaginative thoughts

Poetry and Verse

and perceptions, often containing rhythm and other devices of sound, imagery, and figurative language. Traditional stories, myths, legends, nursery rhymes, and

Folklore

songs from the past. Oral tradition with no known author, passed on from generation to generation. Stories set in places that do not exist, about people and

Fantasy

creatures that could not exist or events that could not happen. Make-believe and imaginative worlds. Based on extending physical laws and scientific principles to

Science Fiction

their logical outcomes, usually futuristic. Describes worlds that are plausible and could exist someday.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction Historical Fiction

Stories could happen in the real world; characters seem real; contemporary setting. Stories reconstruct life in the past, using realistic actual and fictional characters, events and historical setting. An account of a person's life, or part of a life history by

Biography

someone else or the person him or herself. Includes, autobiographies, memoirs, letters, diaries, journals.

Nonfiction

Informational books that explain a subject or concept using facts about the real world.