Genres

What is a Genre?
 A word from the French which means
“category”

 A word used to describe the various types

of literature

 A group of literature classified by common

characteristics
 Five Main Literary Genres
 Fiction
 Nonfiction
 Folktales/Traditional Literature
 Drama
 Poetry
 Fiction
 Stories that are made up in the mind of
the author.
 “Make-believe” or Imaginary
 Can be based on truth
 Fiction Genres
 Realistic Fiction
 Adventure stories
 Mysteries
 Humorous stories
 Historical Fiction
 War stories
 Biographical fiction
 Fantasy
 Ghost stories
 Science fiction
 Realistic Fiction
 A story using made-up characters that
could happen in real life.
 Examples of Realistic Fiction
 Just Grace
 George Brown, Class Clown
 Junie B. Jones
 Nate the Great
 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
 Historical Fiction
 A fictional story that takes place in a
particular time period in the past.
 Often the setting is real.
 The characters may be real or made-up.
 Examples of Historical Fiction
 Number the Stars
 Baseball Saved Us
 Dear America series
 American Girl series
 Fantasy
 A story that includes elements that are
impossible.
 May have talking animals or magical
powers.
 Often takes place in medieval or
nonexistent worlds
 Think fairies, mythical creatures
 5 kinds of Fantasy
 Fantasy Animal Stories – animals have human
characteristics – Charlotte’s Web, Babe the Gallant Pig,
Clifford books
 Ghost stories or supernatural fiction – has characters
from the spirit world – Wait Till Helen Comes
 Time fantasy and space fiction – Travel back and forth in
time – Missing Series
 Science Fiction – based on scientific fact – contains
elements within the realm of possibility because of scientific
discoveries – The Giver, A Wrinkle in Time
 High Fantasy – epic in nature, usually include a quest –
Narnia series, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Roald Dahl books
 Examples of Fantasy
 James and the Giant Peach
 Alice in Wonderland
 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
 Babe, the Gallant Pig
 Wait Till Helen Comes
 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
 Science Fiction
 This is a type of fantasy genre.
 It uses science and technology.
 May have robots, time machines, etc.
 Examples of Science Fiction
 The Giver
 A Wrinkle in Time
 Found (The Missing series)
 Nonfiction
 Factual books
 Give information
 Classified with Dewey Decimal numbers
 Nonfiction Genres
 Informational
 Biography
 Autobiography
 Folktales or Traditional Literature
 Stories passed down from generation to
generation
 Contain cultural traditions, rules, and
rituals
 Sometimes religious beliefs are included
 Usually has a moral of the story or lesson
learned
 Classified in the 398 section or 292 section
 Folktale/Traditional Genres
 Myths
 Folktales
 Nursery rhymes
 Epics
 Hero stories
 Legends
 Tall tales
 Fables
 Fairy tales
 Examples of Traditional Literature
 Paul Bunyan
 Mother Goose Rhymes
 Beowulf
 Robin Hood
 King Arthur and his Knights
 The Odyssey
 The Tortoise and the Hare
 The Three Bears
 Red Riding Hood
 The Ugly Duckling
 Drama
 Works written in dramatic form
 Collections of short plays or book-length
plays
 Example: works of Shakespeare
 Poetry
 Verse written to create a response of
thought and feeling from the reader
 Often uses rhythm and rhyme to convey
its meaning
 There are many, many kinds of poetry!
 Limericks
 Haiku
 Acrostic
Just to name a few!
 There are also books that are
CROSS-GENRE.
That means that they fall into more than one
category.
An example is The Magic School Bus series.