GENRE Miss Cameron Dec. 2008

Definition: Genre is just a fancy way of saying “different categories or types of books”.

Can you tell me your favorite genres?

How about...  biographical sketch  fables  fantasy  folklore  poetry  nonfiction  ABC books  historical fiction  realistic fiction  science fiction  parables  allegories  tall tales  personal narratives

Autobiography  Factual story about a real person in the past or in the present.  Written by the person the story is about.

Biography  Factual story about a real person in the past or in the present.  Written by someone else. President George Washington

Fantasy  Characters allowed to have traits that we know are physically impossible.  Characters may solve a problem by using magic or some other impossible strategy.

Folklore

Poetry  Verse written to evoke thoughts and feeling in the reader.  Often uses rhythm and rhyme to convey its message.

Nonfiction  Books that contain factual information about a subject, or reference books in general (like encyclopedias).

Historical Fiction  Stories that take place in a real location at a particular time in the past.  Characters may be fictional or real.  Some real events are mixed with fictional events of the time.

Realistic Fiction Stories that involve characters and events that appear to be realistic.

Science Fiction  Stories in which the major events rely on scientific fact, discovery, or exploration and/or characters who are alien to Earth.  Setting may be Earth or some other space location.

A,B,C Books These are books in which the author chooses a topic and tells about it using the alphabet. For example: If an author were writing about animals, the first page might say, “A is for anteater.” The second page might say, “B is for bat.”

Personal Narrative They are about yourself and experiences that you have encountered, read, or heard about. Your job will be to make the story as interesting for your reader as it was for you when it happened. Lots of description, lots of action, and lots of dialogue will help your reader feel what you felt.

Allegory: A story in which the characters represent qualities or ideas. For example, in westerns, the sheriff represents the good, and the outlaw represents evil.

Biographical Sketch A biographical sketch is a brief summary of your professional or educational accomplishments

Parables: Parables are stories used to teach a lesson. They do not contain animals.

Tall Tales: Tall tales are stories in which either the character, the setting, or the character’s actions are larger than life. They have been passed down for many years, so they have no known author.