Genres and Formats

Genres and Formats

Textbook Reflection: Chapter 3

There are only two types of genres: Fiction and Nonfiction. Everything else is subgenre, subcategory or a format. First, let’s look at fiction. There are two different subgenres of fiction: Realism and Fantasy. Realist fiction is broken down into two categories: modern, contemporary books and historical fiction, both of which are easy to determine.  However, fantasy fiction is much more complex involving modern and traditional subgenres. And these subgenres are even more divided. Traditional fantasy includes Fairytales, Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Legends and Fables. Modern Fantasy is slightly more complicated. Modern Fantasy is divided into the subcategories of: Hard Science Fiction, Soft Science Fiction, High Fantasy and Low Fantasy.  A Hard Science Fiction novel has as its main focus – science going into detail about how everything works. A Soft Science Fiction book is more character and plot driven with the science being somewhat in the background. Then there are High Fantasy and Low Fantasy novels. High Fantasy books create their own world and languages (Game of Thrones) whereas Low Fantasy books have elements of fantasy weaved into the story.

Now let’s look at Nonfiction. Nonfiction is informational text that can be biographical (including autobiographies and memoirs), narrative (feels more like a story) or informational.

There are many different types of categories of fiction such as mystery, horror, sports fiction, classics, and dystopia. But these are not genres. There are also different formats of books such as poetry, drama, novels, picture books and graphic novels.

This is great information to think about as you read YA literature. But it is important to remember that not every book fits a subgenre or category perfectly. Keeping an open mind to all the different aspect of what a book presents will help you guide more students to a variety of books which will broaden their reading tastes.