NOTE: If the book has elements of two or more different genres, decide which is more important to the purpose of the book.
* example: The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System has a flying school bus (fantasy), however the purpose of the book is to teach about the solar system (informational).
* example: In The Cay, a ship is torpedoed during World War II and only a man and and boy survive. However the bulk of the story is not about the World War II setting (historical), but about the survival of the man and the boy on a deserted island (adventure/survival).
* exceptions: Give two genres if they are equally strong (such as in Root Cellar which is both historical and fantasy) or if one of them is poetry, since poetry is a form of delivering the words, not the story content.

ADVENTURE/SURVIVAL = stories in which the adventures/survival of the main character(s) is the point of the story
* sub-genre of realistic
* examples: adventures (Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Black Pearl)
survival (Julie of the Wolves, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Slake's Limbo)


ANIMAL = stories about humans giving love to and receiving devotion and loyalty from an animal
* sub-genre of realistic
* should be from the viewpoint of a human (Trouble With Tuck, Black Stallion). The exception is stories in which animals are trying to journey to their humans (Incredible Journey) and the jist of the story is the journey, not the conversations between the animals.
* can also be about injustice or cruelty to animals (White Fang, A Tale of Antarctica)


BIOGRAPHY = realistic detailed stories about the lives of individual people which may be dead or alive; the story is about the people, not a period of history such as with historical fiction
* there are three levels, explained only to help you understand the breadth of currently published biographies; we will classify generically as biography, no matter which of these types the story falls under
1) authentic biography = well-documented, carefully researched account of a person's life. Only those statements that are actually known to have been made by the subject are included in the conversations.
examples: Jean Fritz books about historical personages (And Then What Happened Paul Revere?, Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?)
2) fictionalized biography = author may invent dialogue and even include unspoken thoughts of the subject, with the actual conversation based on actual facts taken from diaries, journals, or other period sources
examples: Constance, Homesick, My Own Story
3) biographical fiction = consists entirely of imagined conversation and reconstructed action
* examples: Ben and Me, Mr Revere and I


CLASSIC = this is left-over category of books that are timeless; these will be mainly misplaced realistic books
* examples: Silas Marner, Little Women, To Kill a Mockingbird, Heidi


FAIRY TALES = wonder tales of magic and supernatural, romance, and adventure
* authorship may or may not be known
* fairly short (not novel length)
* typical language includes 'once upon a time', 'lived happily ever after'
* the number three is common (Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you get three wishes...)
* the virtues of love, kindness, and truth prevail; hate, wickedness, and evil are punished (this is what makes fairy tales different from fantasies)
* often includes magic such as fairies or elves (Elves & The Shoemaker), fairy godmothers (Little Rabbit Foo Foo), giants (Jack and the Beanstalk), witches or evil people (Hansel & Gretel), wizards and spells (Rumpelstiltzkin), or beasts (Beauty & The Beast)
* settings with kings and queens, nobles, dragons, etc. are common
* often the hero triumphs all odds to get the princess (don't confuse with King Arthur Tales which are legends and thus folk tales
* includes spoofs (jokes) on classics (Sleeping Ugly, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Emperor Penguin's New Clothes)


FANTASY = stories whose plot or characterization cannot happen in the 'real world'
* animated toys (Toy Story)
* breaks laws of physics (Mary Poppins)
* cars/animals that do fanciful things (Mouse & The Motorcycle, Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang
* classic good versus evil (The Dark is Rising)
* ghosts (Stonewords)
* people switching identities internally (Freaky Friday)
* superhuman (Superman, Pippi Longstocking)
* tales of pure imaginations (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan)
* talking animals (Animal Farm, Charlotte's Web, Animal Farm
* time travel (Root Cellar, Time Machine)
* tiny people (Borrowers, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Littles)
* travel to another world or dimension, not referring to space travel, like by NASA (The Hobbit, Chronicles of Narnia, Phantom Tollbooth)


FOLK TALES = stories that have been passed down (orally or written) through the years
* authorship may be unknown
* includes myths, superstitions, fabels, lengends, tall tales, epics, parables and proverbs, nursery rhymes and ballads, games and songs, dance rituals, and religious stories
* examples: Robin Hood, Paul Bunyan, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain


HISTORICAL = a realistic story with a setting in the past
* large genre in which the quality and extent of historical content varies
* historical setting must be crucial to the story line
* examples: Witch of Blackbird Pond, My Brother Sam is Dead, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry

INFORMATIONAL = books that provide information on a topic, some of which appear to be story-like, others like a textbook
* includes books about art, computers, fine art (paintings), games, geography, language arts, mathematics, physical education/sports, science, social studies, and history
*examples: The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor, Playground Rhymes, How to Draw Cats and Kittens, The Kids Book of Chess, See Inside a Roman Town

MYSTERY = involves the atmosphere of excitement and suspense - solve the case, who-dun-it, etc.
* sub-genre of realistic
* examples: The Westing Game, Encyclopedia Brown series, House of Dies Drear, Who Really Killed Cock Robin?

POETRY = verse text; the book may include a collection of poetry (called an anthology) or only a single verse (usually illustrated)
* if genre of book is poetry plus any other, label it as both
examples: The Sign of the Seahorse (poetry + fantasy)
Welcome to the Green House (poetry + informational)

REALISTIC = stories whose plot and characterization are possible (maybe outlandish, but still possible); everything that happens could happen; setting is in recent times
* setting can be in the past if the setting is not the issue (And Now Miguel, The Outsiders)
Possible topics and examples:
* accidental injury to an animal/human by a human (One-Eyed Cat)
* child abandonment, kidnapping, missing children (Who is Eddie Leonard, The Face on the Milk Carton)
* cultural groups (Young Landlords, Zeely, Child of the Owl, Plain Girl, Shabanu)
* terminal illness (A Taste of Blackberries, Rumble Fish, When the Phone Rang, Grover)
* drugs, alcohol use (That Was Then This Is Now, Driver's Ed)
* family issues - divorce, siblings, elders, etc. (Dear Mr Henshaw, It's Not the End of the World, Superfudge, Won't Know Until I Get There)
* growing up - body changes, romance, dating, etc. (Are You There God It's Me Margaret)
* humor (Best Christmas Pageant Ever, How to Eat Fried Worms)
* interracial relationships (Edgar Allen)
* mental or physical handicaps (Summer of the Swans)
* emotional or physical abuse (The Pinballs, I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This)
* prejudice (The Hundred Dresses)
* premarital pregnancy, foster homes (Great Gilly Hopkins, The Pinballs)
* sports (Hoop Dreams)


SCIENCE FICTION = events of the story are possible, given advances in science sometime in the future
* sub-genre of fantasy but differs from fantasy not in subject matter but in aim; the aim of science fiction is to suggest real hypothesis about mankind's future or about the nature of the universe
* Possible topics and examples:
* alien visitors to earth (The Fallen Spaceman, E.T., The Forgotten Door)
* colonization differnet from now, due to geological changes (Waterworld)
* killer viruses (The Stand)
* new governments or methods of controlling social order or the intelligence of the population (Farenheit 451)
* nuclear or other war (After the Bomb)
* population overcrowding or lack of natural resources such as food, water, oil, etc.
* robotization or other manufactured humans as part of the work force/daily life of humans (The White Mountains, My Robot Buddy, Konrad)
* travel to other planets or galaxies (Wrinkle in Time, Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet)