Genres

Our genre descriptions are taken from here.

Category	Brief Description: Genres in children's and Young Adult Literature
Picture Books	Interdependence of art and text. Story of Concept presented through combination of text and illustration. Classification based on format, not genre. All genres appear in picture books.
Poetry & Verse	Condensed language, imagery.  Distilled, rhythmic expression of imaginative thoughts and perceptions.
Folklore	Literary heritage of humankind. Traditional stories, myths, legends, nursery rhymes, and songs from the past. Oral tradition; no known author.
Fantasy	Imaginative worlds, make-believe. Stories set in places that do not exist, about people and creatures that could not exist, or events that could not happen.
Science Fiction	Based on extending physical laws and scientific principles to their logical outcomes. Stories about what might occur in the future.
Realistic Fiction	"What if" stories, illusion of reality. Events could happen in real world, characters seem real; contemporary setting.
Historical Fiction	Set in the past, could have happened. Story reconstructs events of past age, things that could have or did occur.
Biography	Plot and theme based on person's life. An account of a person's life, or part of a life history; letters, memoirs, diaries, journals, autobiographies.
Nonfiction	Facts about the real world. Informational books that explain a subject or concept.