1. A lesson in classifying stories!
Genres and Subgenres
A lesson in classifying stories!

2. Genre
The word GENRE refers to a particular type or kind of literature.
GENRE = Category
All writing falls into a category or genre

3. 5 Types of Genres Fiction: Creative or imaginative writing
Nonfiction: writing that is true or factual
Folklore: stories once pass down orally
Poetry: writing concerned with the beauty of language
Drama: plays or scripts

4. Fiction Subgenres Fiction Fantasy Realistic Fiction Historical Fiction
Adventure
Mystery
Science Fiction

5. Fiction Length Novel: Novella: Short Story: Usually 100 pages +
Multiple characters, themes, conflicts and plots
Novella:
Shorter than a novel, longer than a short story
21-99 (roughly)
Short Story:
Few Characters, one theme and plot line

6. Realistic Fiction Form of fiction
Reflects life as it could be lived today
Everything could happen to people living in our natural physical world
Characters have normal powers
Story may be set in real places, but NOT based on history nor does it have elements of science fiction

7. Twenty Boy Summer (Realistic Fiction)
For 16 year olds Anna Reiley and Frankie Perino, their 20 day-long, minimally supervised California vacation will be the “Absolute Best Summer Ever.” And according to Frankie, if they meet one boy every day, there’s a pretty good chance that Anna will get her first real boyfriend.
Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie—she’s already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

8. Historical Fiction Based on historical events and/or real settings
Characters are portrayed in a real manner
Some characters may be actual people from history but the plot line is fictional
Artistic mix of fact and fiction

9. The Only Outcast (Historical Fiction)
In the summer of 1904, Fred Dickinson, a 16-year-old Canadian, sets out with his two younger brothers and sister for their annual vacation at their grandparents’ lakeside cottage. Still missing his mother, who died three years ago, Fred is relieved to escape his overbearing and critical father, who, Fred declares, “finds it too nerve-wracking to have me stumbling around all day.” Through carefully mapped scenes, Johnston traces Fred’s maturation as he rescues various siblings from danger, receives a first, painful lesson in love and discovers the truth behind the local legend involving a murderous ferryman.

10. Science Fiction
Contains some sort of scientific element such as outer space, medicine or technology
Events are within the realm of possibility but takes place in the future
Blends fact and fiction with futuristic technology

11. The Host (Science Fiction)
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.
Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect; the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

12. Fantasy Contains one or more of the following:
Supernatural occurrences
Characters and things with magical powers
Animals and things with human characteristics
Real people in fantastical places
Fantastic creatures or characters in real situations

13. A Wrinkle In Time Fantasy
Everyone in town thinks Meg is volatile and dull-witted and that her younger brother Charles Wallace is dumb. People are also saying that their father has run off and left their brilliant scientist mother. Spurred on by these rumors, Meg and Charles Wallace, along with their new friend Calvin, embark on a perilous quest through space to find their father. In doing so they must travel behind the shadow of an evil power that is darkening the cosmos, one planet at a time.

14. Mystery/Crime Stories that have a real setting
Include a problem to be solved with clues & distractions
Includes an answer to the problem

15. The Other Side of Dark (Mystery)
She wakes up in a room that’s not hers, in a body she doesn’t recognize, to discover she’s been in a coma for four years. Her mother is dead—murdered—and Stacy, recovering from a gunshot wound, is the only eyewitness to her mother’s murder. She can recall only a shadowy face, so far. But the killer is not about to let her reveal his identity…

16. Adventure
Focuses on action, danger and excitement

17. Other Subgenres
Western Novels
Romance
Horror
Thriller/Suspense

18. True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
The story that takes place during an 1802 transatlantic journey that turns mutinous and even more dangerous than expected. Thirteen-year-old Charlotte must decide whom to side with and find her courage in order to survive.

19. Informational Writing
Nonfiction Subgenres
Nonfiction
Persuasive Writing
Biography
Autobiography
Informational Writing

20. Informational Writing
Provides facts or information
Newspapers
Textbooks
Reference Material

21. Persuasive Writing Writing used to influence the reader Opinion Pieces
Speeches
Letters

22. Biography Story of a real person’s life Written by someone else
Author must research by interviewing subject or those who knew subject

23. Autobiography Story of a real person’s life Written by that person
Author shares how he/she feels and what he/she thinks

24. Folklore Subgenres
Folklore
Myth
Tall Tale
Fairy Tale
Legend
Fable

25. Fable
Short story with talking animals and a moral (lesson of the story and it is clearly stated)

26. Myth
Has gods and goddesses
May account for the creation of something

27. Tall Tale Funny story set in the Wild West
Main character’s size or skill is exaggerated

28. Fairy Tales Has magic and talking animals
What is the difference between a fairy tale and a fantasy?
Fairy tales are part of the oral tradition
Fairy tales often start with “Once Upon a Time”