Literary Genres
Genre / Description / Examples1. Fiction / Made-up Stories
a) Fantasy / A story including elements that are impossible such as talking animals or magical powers / Narnia, The Phantom Tollbooth, Harry Potter, Pendragon, The Ring trilogy, Maximum Ride, Twilight Series, City of Ember, Dracula, 1984
b) Historical Fiction / A fictional story that takes place in a particular historical period. The setting is often real but the characters are imaginary / The Watsons go to Birmingham, Gone with the Wind, The Sign of the Beaver, My Brother Sam is Dead, Maniac Magee, Sarah, Plain and Tall, The Secret Garden, Adventures of Robin Hood, The Great Gatsby
c) Mystery / A suspenseful story about a puzzling event that is not solved until the end of the story / Cam Jensen, Hardy Boys, The Dollhouse Murders, Alien Secrets, Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, Encyclopedia Brown
d) Realistic Fiction / A story using made-up characters but could happen in real life / Hatchet, Because of Winn Dixie, Stone Fox, Hope was Here, The Pinballs, Summer of the Swans, Blubber, Hatchet, Holes, Wringer, Just Juice
e) Science Fiction / A type of fantasy that uses science and technology (robots, time machines etc.) / My Teacher is an Alien, a Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, The Giver, Jumper, Artemis Fowl
f) Traditional Literature / Stories that are passed down from one group to another in history. Includes folktales, legends, fables, fairy tales, tall tales, and myths from different cultures) / Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Grimm Brothers, Aesop’s Fables, Anansi Stories, Pour quois stories such as Why the Sea is Salt
2. Poetry / Ideas are expressed in compact, imaginative rhythmic form
a) Limericks / Silly and humorous poem with rhyming pattern A-A-B-B-A / There was an old man with a beard
Who said, “it was just as I feared!
Two owls and a hen
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nest in my beard!”
b) Cinquain / 5 lines Line 1 – 1 word
Line 2 – 2 words
Line 3 - 3 words
Line 4 – 4 words
Line 5 - 1 word / Baseball
Bat cracks against
The pitch, sending it out
Over the fence. I did it!
Homerun
c) Haiku / 17 syllables: first line has 5, the second has 7, the third has 5 / Above the meadow
A skylark, singing, flies high
High into silence
d) Free Verse / Poetry in which the poet expresses his or her feelings without adhering to any strict poetic pattern / The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
e) Narrative Poetry / Poetry that tells a story / The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Paul Revere’s Ride, Captain Kid, The Village Blacksmith, The Highwayman
f) Lyric Poetry / Poetry that expresses emotions and appeals to the senses. Can be rhyme or free verse / Still I Rise, Dreams, Annabel Lee, Fire and Ice, Invictus, The Road Less Traveled
g) Tanka / Tanka is a Japanese poetry type of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the rest of seven. Tanka is the oldest type of poetry in Japan. / To live is to break
One’s heart for the sake of love;
A couple of doves,
Beaks touching on their way,
Are stepping out in the sun.
h) Epic Poetry / Epic Poems are long, serious poems that tell the story of a heroic figure. / The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer and The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882).
i) ABC Poem / An ABC poem has a series of lines that create a mood, picture, or feeling. Lines are made up of words and phrases. The first word of line 1 begins with an A, the first word of line 2 begins with a B etc. / Although things are not perfect
Because of trial or pain
Continue in thanksgiving
D o not begin to blame
Even when the times are hard
Fierce winds are bound to blow
j) Acrostic Poem / An Acrostic poem uses the letters in a topic word to begin each line. All lines in the poem relates to or describe the topic / Shines brightly
Up in the sky
Nice and warm on my skin
k) Ballad / Ballad Poems are poems that tell a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often have repeated refrain. A ballad is often about love and often sung. A ballad is a story in poetic form. / The Mermaid
by
Unknown author
Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.
3. Drama (Theatrical, play) / A work to be performed by actors on stage, radio, or television / Nothing But the Truth, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Raisin in the Sun, The Necklace, Sleeping Handsome
4. Nonfiction / Based on Factual Information
a) Informational Text / Texts that provide facts about a variety of topics (sports, animals, science, history, careers, travel, geography, space, weather) / Textbooks, encyclopedias, maps, bus schedules etc.
b) Biography / A story of a real person’s life written by another person / Abe Lincoln, The Story of Ruby Bridges, NBA Super Star Shaquille O’Neal, Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man
c) Autobiography / The life story of a real person written by that person / Michelle Kwan, Diary of Anne Frank, Dream from my Father, Long Walk to Freedom, Bill Peet, Helen Keller, Dr. Seuss