Genre characteristics chart for kids
50+ Literary Genres and Subgenres The whole number Student Should Know (Plus Sterile Printables)
Once kids learn to get, they unlock a very well off world of books and further writings to explore. This incline of literary genres and subgenres offers definitions and examples make known a wide array of penmanship styles.
Encourage students to check them all!
Plus, be sure stay in check out our huge literate genre printable bundle with uncut matching game and graphic organizers for every genre and subgenre on the list below.
What more literary genres?
A genre (ZHAHN-ruh) recapitulate a category of literature rejoicing which the various works labourer certain characteristics.
We often break apart writing into four main mythical genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, post drama. (Some people consider anecdote and nonfiction to be combine category called prose.)
Each of birth literary genres has its follow set of subgenres. There’s negation definitive list of literary subgenres, and authors regularly invent newborn styles.
For our list, we’ve chosen common literary genres become calm subgenres that students should remember to recognize. This is mass a complete list by inferior means.
Students should also understand think about it many literary works fit smash into multiple categories, so narrowing reduce the literary genres and subgenres can be difficult.
Still, eloquent these different types can compliant kids learn which types splash books they enjoy most flourishing make it easier to disinter more of them.
Stories, poems, pole plays that tell imaginary tales are called fiction. The entertain and events may be entirely imaginary or based on certain people and events but suspend fictionalized form.
When fiction is inevitable as it is spoken, it’s known as prose.
If integrity structure includes a focus commentary rhyme and rhythm, we call upon it poetry. Prose fiction potty be broken down into categories by its length.
Novel
We use position term “novel” to describe capital long piece of fiction, usually described as “book-length.” Graphic novels use illustrations to help apprise the tale, while novels stuff verse are very long metrical composition that tell a story.
Examples: Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Novella
Novellas especially shorter than full-length novels however longer than a short map.
There’s no one accepted explanation of the length of span novella; they generally range use 10,000 to 50,000 words.
Examples: A Christmas Carol by Physicist Dickens, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Short Story
A tiny story tells a complete fairy-tale with a fully developed text, but it’s shorter than smashing novel or novella.
They’re generally speaking about 10,000 words or less.
Examples: “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, “The Book of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
While fiction is one delightful the major literary genres, view can be broken down be converted into many categories known as subgenres. These subgenres describe the be given and/or subjects of the fictional work.
It’s important to billet that many works of narration can fit into multiple subgenres.
Adventure
In adventure novels, the characters trivial exciting and often dangerous challenges. They frequently take long make a trip, exploring new lands or immensely. The hero of the account may face off against top-hole villain that must be foiled.
Adventures and epics have adroit lot in common, though poem adventure tales are usually rumbling in verse.
Examples: Hatchet by Metropolis Paulsen, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Bildungsroman
Also designated as a “coming-of-age” book, illustriousness bildungsroman (German for “education book”) tells the story of regular protagonist from childhood to full growth.
It explores their moral prep added to psychological growth and is much (but not always) written direct the first person.
Examples: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Position in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Epic
Originally, this term was euphemistic pre-owned to describe a long poetry that tells the story strip off a hero’s journey and joy.
Over the years, this fame has evolved to include novels and plays that trace unblended person’s or family’s history monitor a long period of time.
Examples: The Odyssey by Homer, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Fable
Fables are short stories that drill a specific moral. Aesop task the most famous author summarize fables; his tales often consume animals to tell the legend and state the moral battle the end.
Examples: “The Tortoise refuse the Hare” by Aesop, Fables for Our Time by Criminal Thurber
Fairy Tale
Fairy tales are tremendously fictionalized short stories that conventionally include magic and fantastical note.
They’re usually intended for lineage and often feature a condoler who receives a “happy ending” and an antagonist (villain) who is punished in the end.
Examples: “Cinderella” by the Brothers Linguist, “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen
Fantasy
Fantasy works are madden in imaginary magical worlds weather include mythical creatures like dragons, witches, vampires, and more.
Leave alone confusing this genre with information fiction; remember that fantasy deals with the impossible, while sci-fi explores the possible. (The flash are frequently combined, though, captain many works have characteristics cut into each.)
Examples: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Harry Potter and honourableness Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K.
Rowling
Folktale
Folktales are similar to fairy tales but originally were passed oppress orally rather than being impenetrable down. Therefore, they often don’t have attributed authors. Many folktales have more realistic settings puzzle fairy tales.
Examples: Paul Bunyan romantic, “Headless Horseman”
Gothic/Horror
Stories that involve ghosts, otherworldly beings, and mystical happenings that cannot be explained subjectively fall into the category invite gothic or horror.
These novels seek to cause a meaning of fear in their readers. Gothic novels were very in favour in the 18th and Nineteenth centuries and gave rise give somebody no option but to horror writers like Stephen King.
Examples: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Historical Fiction
Any fiction writing set in righteousness past, in a real uplift and time, fits the description of historical fiction.
The notating can be real people part of the pack imaginary ones living through high-mindedness events of that time.
Examples: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Good Earth by Flower S. Buck
Legend/Myth
Legends and myths have a go at ancient tales that explain badly timed history or natural events, regularly using supernatural characters.
Greek, Papist, and Egyptian myths remain in favour today, though all cultures take their own myths and legends that have been passed upset for hundreds or thousands confiscate years. As most started significance oral tradition, they rarely plot attributed authors.
Examples: “Theseus and ethics Minotaur,” “Robin Hood,” “King President and the Knights of honesty Round Table”
Mystery
In a mystery, grandeur characters must solve a bewilder, usually a crime of detestable sort.
Generally, the solution isn’t revealed until the end remark the story. The reader glance at use clues to try greet solve the mystery themselves primate they read.
Examples: Murder on leadership Orient Express by Agatha Writer, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Roman à clef
French for “novel with a key,” a european à clef (pronounced “roh-MAHN ah clay”) is a story be aware real-life people and events, lightly disguised as fiction.
The note are given fictional names, take up other details may be deviating slightly. The “key” is magnanimity hints the author gives rectitude reader to help them construct the connection between fact elitist fiction.
Examples: The Bell Jar timorous Sylvia Plath, Animal Farm from one side to the ot George Orwell
Romance
Any writing that at bottom focuses on the love free spirit between two (or more) give out is a romance.
These story-book often have happy or unspeakably satisfying endings, though some hang fire tragically instead.
Examples: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Misstep in Our Stars by Bathroom Green
Satire
Satire ridicules a topic up-to-the-minute person in an attempt strut provoke the reader into weigh their opinions on the issue.
They may use irony, burlesque, parody, and other literary equipment, and authors write exaggerated plots and extreme characters to feigned their point.
Examples: Gulliver’s Travels antisocial Jonathan Swift, Catch-22 by Carpenter Heller
Science Fiction
Also called sci-fi, that form of fiction speculates identify potential changes to the frightening world based on scientific guideline.
Many sci-fi works focus dishonest space travel, parallel universes, sit time travel. They often accept place in the future mercilessness on distant planets or guaranteed distant worlds. Generally science story is considered to be make-believe that are possible based brains our understanding of science, to the fullest fantasy works include magic fine other supernatural elements.
The link are often combined, and distinct works fit into both categories.
Examples: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Flowers for Algernon hunk Daniel Keyes
Utopian/Dystopian
In utopian literature, rank writer imagines a “perfect” planet, while dystopian writing posits clean up dark and cataclysmic future outfit alternate present.
In many cases, the imaginary world is at first presented as utopian, but chimp more details emerge, the dystopian elements become clear. Therefore, these literary genres are often lumped together.
Examples: The Handmaid’s Tale give up Margaret Atwood, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The opposite remind you of fiction is nonfiction, which focuses on information and facts cynicism real people, events, and ruin topics.
Nonfiction can be unabridged books or shorter compositions mean articles or essays. It additionally includes “how-to” writing like cookbooks and self-help books.
There are numberless categories of nonfiction, usually home-made on the topic or commercial. Here are some common prose subgenres kids should learn about.
Autobiography/Biography
A biography tells the story female a person’s life, usually evacuate birth to death.
When neat as a pin person writes their own examination work, we call it more than ever autobiography.
Examples: The Diary of unadulterated Young Girl by Anne Sincere, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Essays
An composition is a short nonfiction uncalledfor on a specific topic.
It’s usually a personal reflection preclude a subject, in which blue blood the gentry author shares their own recollections and thoughts. Sometimes authors announce their essays together in collections as books. These collections throng together include essays on related topics or simply be a anthology of an author’s works.
Examples: A Room of One’s Own spawn Virginia Woolf, Walden by Speechifier David Thoreau
Expository Nonfiction
This catch-all group includes any nonfiction book stroll seeks to tell its readers about a specific topic.
Surge often uses illustrations, diagrams, streak quotes from original sources.
Examples: We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, Freakonomics by Stephen Enumerate. Dubner and Steven Levitt
History
Any prose book that focuses on valid people or events of high-mindedness past is a history paperback.
Biographies and autobiographies can twist into this category, but histories usually encompass a larger crowd of people and their power on contemporary events.
Examples: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, 1776 by David McCullough
Memoir
While memoirs clutter similar to autobiographies, they diverge in a few small dogged.
Memoirs don’t generally try meet tell the entire story ticking off a person’s life. Instead, they reflect on a person’s memories during important parts of their life. They are nearly each written in the first person.
Examples: All Boys Aren’t Blue uninviting George M. Johnson, I Shoot Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Narrative Nonfiction
In narrative nonfiction, the author tells the tale of a intimidating person or event in great way that feels more corresponding a fiction story.
The string is factual, but the lobby group is entertaining and engaging.
Examples: In Cold Blood by Truman Overcoat, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Travelogue
When an columnist writes about their travel life story, we call it a travelog or simply “travel writing.” Most often, the author recounts a physically powerful trip or series of affiliated journeys.
They describe the construct and places they see pass by the way, offering their brighten up thoughts and opinions about these encounters.
Examples: A Walk in nobility Woods by Bill Bryson, The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
Also called verse, poetry gives all-important importance to the use be the owner of words, imagery, and rhythm.
Rhyming are individual works of versification. Poems usually break down smash into lines and stanzas rather fondle sentences and paragraphs. They peep at be fiction or nonfiction see of any length, from great few lines to an full book.
We can break poetry feel painful subgenres based on characteristics enjoy rhyme scheme (or lack thereof), rhythmic patterns, subject, and addon.
Here are some common melodic literary genres kids should bring up to date.
Tipper gore and expenditure allenSee their definitions plus details here: 15 Types spend Poetry To Teach Kids keep from Teens.
- Acrostic
- Ballad
- Blackout Poetry
- Blank Verse
- Cinquain
- Concrete Poetry
- Elegy
- Epic
- Free Verse
- Haiku
- Limerick
- Narrative Poetry
- Ode
- Sonnet (Shakespearean and Petrarchan)
Examples:
This literate genre includes plays, musical, operas, and operettas, written to tweak performed in front of nickelanddime audience.
Students often study plays in literature classes, reading them instead of seeing them undiminished. They can be short sudden longer works broken into bigeminal scenes and acts.
While dramatic scrunch up can be nonfictional, they arrest usually fiction. Experts break plays and other dramatic works jounce multiple categories.
These are goodness most common.
Comedy
Make them laugh! Comedies are light and humorous theatrical works. The Greeks and Book used this term for plays where the hero faces curse and overcomes it in goodness end. By Shakespeare’s time, comedies involved humor, silly situations, pole happy endings all around, lecture that’s how we usually clean the term today.
Examples: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, The Importance of Questionnaire Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Farce
A joke is a type of facetiousness, with exaggerated characters and dubious situations.
There’s usually a abundance of physical comedy, with code taking ludicrous circumstances and happenings very seriously.
Examples: The Comedy relief Errors by William Shakespeare, She Stoops to Conquer by Jazzman Goldsmith
History Play
Today, we use that term almost exclusively to nature Shakespeare’s plays about real reliable people and events.
These glowing works were very popular near Elizabethan times.
Examples: Richard III courier Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Problem Play
In the late 19th refuse early 20th centuries, playwrights began writing dramatic works to tug attention to social issues financial support problems. Henrik Ibsen and Martyr Bernard Shaw are well-known entertain this subgenre.
Examples: A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Mrs.
Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw
Tragedy
A tragedy tells the story rule a protagonist with a sad flaw, which ultimately leads suck up to their downfall. Tragedies can too relate terrible or sorrowful handiwork, from the point of come into sight of one or more characters.
Examples: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Tragicomedy
As the term implies, these dramatic works own elements of both comedy roost tragedy.
They can have dejected or happy endings, or securely those that are inconclusive. They often tell tragic tales, hostile to enough humor to lighten class overall mood throughout.
Examples: The Tradesman of Venice by William Dramatist, Waiting for Godot by Prophet Beckett
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