Genres and Formats

They might not be what you think.  There are two main genres:  fiction and nonfiction, everything else is subgenre. Under fiction there are two main subgenres, realism and fantasy.  Under realism we have realistic (modern) fiction and historical.  Under fantasy we have modern (hard and soft science fiction; high and low fantasy) and traditional (folktales, ballads, fables, legends, myths, and fairy tales). 

I learned about hard science fiction being that science is the main part of the story and soft science fiction that characters play a big part of the story. I had no idea about the difference I just lumped it into “science fiction”.  Also I did not know there were differences in high and low fantasy.  High fantasy creates a whole new world, language, creature, etc., whereas low fantasy has much of a world and language we are familiar with elements that are not possible. 

Nonfiction branches into informational then into narrative nonfiction, expository nonfiction, biography, autobiography and memoirs.  It was nice to figure out the difference between an autobiography being about the whole life of someone and a memoir being just part of someone’s life.  Narrative nonfiction of course tells a story of true information and expository will be fact stating books. 

Chic lit, mysteries, dystopia, action adventure, paranormal, horror, humor, war are SUBJECTS/ TOPICS NOT genres. 

Formats:  poetry, drama, novels, picture books, graphic novels, chapter books, and short stories. 

I loved seeing the genres and formats put together.  I could see teaching students this so they understand the difference.