Literary Genres

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Literary Genres

• Recognizing Different Types of Literature
• Source of information
• Cullinan and Galdas Literature and the Child

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What is a genre?

• A category of literature defined by their shared
  characteristics. Within each genre, there are
  many sub-genres.

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What are the genres?

• 1. Picture book
• 2. Traditional literature
• Folk tales
• Fairy tales
• Mother Goose
• Legends, myths, epics and fables
• 3. Modern fantasy
• Science fiction
• Fractured fairy tales
• 4. Poetry

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Genres continued

• 5. Realistic fiction
• 6. Historical fiction
• 7. Biography
• 8. Non-fiction or informational

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1 Picture Books

• A book in which the picture is as important as
  the text.
• Usually 32 pages but can be as many as 48
• Annual award Caldecott Award is given to the
  best illustrator.
• It includes picture books, illustrated
  storybooks, wordless storybooks, concept books,
  and informational books

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Examples of picture books

• Recommended reading
• http//kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?List
  ID61

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Picture Book Authors

• Eric Carle
• Barbara Cooney
• Donald Crews
• Ezra Jack Keats
• Stephen Kellogg
• Brian Pinkney
• Maurice Sendak
• Chris van Allsburg
• David Wiesner

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Are all picture books for young children?
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Karen Hesse Wendy Watson, Illustrator
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Baseball Saved Us Ken Mochizuki, Dom Lee,
Illustrator
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Jumanji Chris Van Allsburg
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David Wiesner
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Zelinsky
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2 Traditional Literature

• This literature is born of oral tradition, and is
  passed orally from generation to generation.
• It often has "retold by" or "adapted by" in front
  of the author, on the title page of the book.
• It often starts with the phrase
• "Once upon a time..." and often has a happy
  ending.

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Folktales

• Often explain something that happens in nature or
  give/explain a certain truth about life in a
  creative way.
• Often stories of animals that act like humans and
  live in a world of wonder and magic.
• Often numbers like three and seven are in many of
  the stories.

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Why folktales?

• Forerunners of television, radio, books,
  newspapers.
• Parents used them to teach lessons to their
  children
• Taught customs of villages and about the people
  who lived in them
• Taught about people in their communities

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Types of Folktales

• Fairy tales
• Best known
• Most popular
• Includes magic
• Setting does not have a definite time or location

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Cinderella
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Snow White
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Jack and the Beanstalk
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Rapunzel SCETV-Streamline
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Old favorites

• Rumplestiltskin
• Frog Prince
• Red Riding Hood
• Sleeping Beauty
• Beauty and the Beast
• Hansel and Gretel

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Types of Folktales

• Noodlehead story
• Story about a silly or stupid person who
  nevertheless often wins out in the end
• Often nonsensical meant for fun

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Noodlehead Stories
Foolish Men of Gotham Seven Foolish
Fishermen Foolish Jack
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Types of Folktales

• Pourquoi Story
• Story that explains why something happens
• Usually explains something in the natural world
• Example how a particular plant or animal came to
  be

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Why Mosquitos Buzz in Peoples Ears SCETV
Streamline
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Types of Folktales

• Animal Tales
• Sometimes called Beast Tales
• Tales of animals which talk and act like human
  beings
• Popular with young children

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Little Red Hen SCETV Streamline
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Types of Folktales

• Trickster Tale
• A variety of the beast tale
• Features a character who outsmarts everyone else
  in the story

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Anansi, the Spider ManSCETV-Streamline
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Types of Folktales

• Realistic tales
• All the elements of the story could happen,
  though they may be exaggerated or humorous
• These tales are relatively few in number
• They have their basis in an actual figure from
  history

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Johnny Appleseed SCETV Streamline
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Types of Folktales

• Cumulative Tale
• These stories are added upon
• The story is told up to a certain point and then
  begun again from near the beginning and told
  until a new segment is added.
• Minimum plot, maximum repetition rhythm

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Examples

• The Gingerbread Man
• I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
• Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
• Old Woman an Her Pig
• Johnny Cake
• Teeny Tiny

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Characteristics Elements of Folktales

• Characters Main and minor
• Characters are usually flat, representing one
  human characteristic such as wickedness, goodness
  or stupidity
• Contrasting characters Good child/bad child or
  good child/mean stepmother
• Animals are often main characters and can act
  like humans
• Setting - When/Where story happens
• Time is quickly set in the introduction, usually
  with a phrase such as Once upon a time.
• Place is generalized A palace, a hut, a forest

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Elements continued

• Plot
• Exciting, swift-moving with lots of conflict and
  suspense
• The introduction is very short giving the setting
  and introducing the characters in a few words and
  then starts right into the action
• Must be logical within its setting even though it
  may have magic or magical characters
• Swift and satisfying conclusion
• Cycle of three recurrences (Goldilocks, Three
  Little Pigs, etc.)

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Elements continued

• Style
• Often include rhyme and repetition
• Lot of dialogue
• Plenty of imagery
• Theme or what the story is about
• Satisfy our sense of justice and morality because
  good is usually rewarded and evil is punished
• Help us laugh at ourselves

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Elements continued

• Motif
• Smallest part of a story which persists in the
  oral tradition
• Types of motifs
• Characters A wicked stepmother, an evil witch, a
  stupid boy, a handsome prince, a woodcutter, a
  donkey, a giant
• Places Forest, ballroom in a palace, a hut in a
  forest, a river
• Objects Glass slipper, a magical tablecloth,
  golden ball, a rose
• Actions or events Journey, palace ball, tricking
  an opponent, answering a riddle

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Modern Authors

• Paul Goble
• Steven Kellogg
• Gail Carson Levine
• James Marshall, 
• Martin Rafe,
• Jon Scieszka, 
• Jane Yolen,
• Paul Zelinsky

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Fairy Tales

• Simple narratives dealing with supernatural being
  such as fairies, magicians, ogres and dragons.
• What sets them apart from other folktales is the
  magic. (wee people, fairy godmothers, and other
  magical characters make things happen)

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Example

• The Talking Egg

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Who is Mother Goose?

• The term has been traced to Loret's 1650 La Muse
  Historique in which appeared the line, Comme un
  conte de la Mere Oye ("Like a Mother Goose
  story").
• In 1697 Charles Perrault used the phrase in a
  published collection of eight fairy tales which
  included "The Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red
  Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," and
  others. Although the book was titled, (translated
  from French) Histories and Tales of Long Ago,
  with Morals, the frontispiece showed an old woman
  spinning and telling stories, with a placard on
  the page which bore the words Contes de la Mere
  l'Oye (Tales of My Mother the Goose).

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Mother Goose
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Legends, Myths, Epics and Fables

• A fable is a brief tale that presents a clear and
  unambiguous moral. The moral of the story is
  explicitly stated. Slow and steady wins the
  race.
• Morals are taught by allegory. Animals or
  inanimate objects take on human traits.
• Origin from Greece and India (Panchatantra
  Stories of the Buddhas previous lives)

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Fables continued

• Mythology Myths express the belief of ancient
  cultures and portray visions of destiny.
• Tales of love, carnage, revenge, and deep
  emotions.
• Transmit ancient values, symbols, customs, art,
  law, and language.

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Legends/Epics

• Epics or hero tales focus on courageous deeds of
  mortals against each other or against gods and
  monsters.
• Contest of good versus evil

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Examples of Epics

• King Arthur
• Robin Hood
• Iliad and the Odyssey
• Le Morte dArthur

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Examples
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3 Modern Fantasy Science Fiction

• Definition Imaginative narratives that explore
  alternate realities.
• Science fiction Explores scientific
  possibilities asking if this, then what?
• Difference Science fiction extrapolates from
  scientific principles
• Common themes from folktales morality,
  traditions, exploration of things we do not fully
  understand.

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Authors Science Fiction/Fantasy

• Susan Cooper
• Lloyd Alexander
• Natalie Babbitt
• Lois Lowry
• Isaac Asimov
• Nancy Farmer
• Madeleine LEngle
• Anne McCaffrey
• C.S. Lewis

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Types of Fantasy

• Animal
• Charlottes Web
• Wind in the Willow
• Watership Down
• Peter Rabbit
• Winnie the Pooh
• Poppy
• Redwall

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Types of fantasy

• Miniature worlds, time slips, unreal worlds, and
  magic
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
• The Borrowers
• Behind the Attic Wall
• James and the Giant Peach
• Jumanji

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Types of fantasy continued

• Quest stories search for an inner enemy rather
  than an outer enemy.
• Inner strength is needed to meet the challenges
  endured.
• Overcoming obstacles vanquishes evil

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Types of Science Fiction

• Mind control. Telepathy. ESP. Communication
  across time and space
• Life in the future
• Survival

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4 Poetry

• Poems make us smile
• Poems create images
• Poems express feelings
• Poems stir emotions
• Poems promote school learning

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Variety of forms

• Narrative Casey at Bat, the Pied Piper,
  Hiawatha, Paul Reveres Ride
• Lyric poetry statement of mood or feeling
• All the Pretty Little Horses
• Hush-a-bye
• Dont you cry
• Go to sleep
• My little baby
• When you wake
• You shall have
• All the pretty little horses

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Variety of poems continued

• Free verse unrhymed with irregular patterns
• Cinquain 5 unrhymed lines in patterns of 2, 4,
  6, 8 and 2 syllables
• Sniffles and Sneezing
• Coughing
• Sneezing a lot
• Missing school, missing friends
• I would feel bad at home a lot
• Feel bored
• Haiku 3 lines and 17 syllables
• Pigeons strut the rails
• Of the city reservoir
• Doing a rain dance.
• Jane Yolen

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Varieties of poetry continued

• Concrete uses the appearance of words on a page
  to suggest or illustrate the poems meaning

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Varieties of poems continued

• Ballads a story told in verse and often sung
• Limerick 5 lines with a rhyme scheme of
  a-a-b-b-a
• There was an old man of Peru (a)
• who dreamed he was eating his shoe (a)
• He woke in the night (b)
• in a terrible fright (b)
• And found it was perfectly true. (a)

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Poets NCTE Award Winners

• David McCord
• Aileen Fisher
• Karla Kuskin
• Myra Cohn Livington
• Eve Merriam
• John Ciardi
• Lilian Moore
• Arnold Adolf
• Valerie Worth
• Barbara Ebsen
• Eloise Greenfield
• X.J. Kennedy

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5 Realistic Fiction

• Realistic fiction has a strong feeling of
  actuality
• Characters and events could have happened
• Deals with all dimensions of the real world
  humorous, sensitive, thoughtful, joyful, and
  painful
• Controversy often surrounds this genre when
  dealing with drugs, alcoholism, divorce,
  abortion, death, homelessness, child abuse,
  teenage relationships

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5 Realistic Fiction

• One of the easiest genres to define
• Could the people, events, and story have actually
  occurred?

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What makes good realistic fiction?

• Setting has to be realistic, believable.
• Characters have to reflect human beings we
  know, credible, authenic, and not stereotypic,
  and show change and development in the story.
• Plot Conflict is probable in this world today
  and matters to the reader.
• Theme Important issue of todays society
• Style Todays language forms, slang, and
  reflects present cultures.

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Authors

• Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Matt Christopher
• Judy Blume
• Louis Sachar
• Richard Peck
• Gary Paulsen
• Walter Dean Myers
• Laurie Halse Anderson
• Cynthia Rylant
• Sharon Creech
• Avi
• Kate DiCamillo
• Many, many more

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Newbery Medal

• The first English publisher and store owner of
  childrens literature in London, 1744.
• Award established in 1922 and has been given
  annually by the ALA.
• Award is for the most distinguished contribution
  to literature for children published in the USA
  during the year.

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6 Historical Fiction

• Historical fiction tells the story of history it
  consists of stories grounded in facts of our
  past.
• It differs from nonfiction in that it does not
  only presents facts or re-creates a time and
  place, but also weaves the facts into a fictional
  story.
• Some books that are now classified as historical
  fiction began as contemporary realism. (Little
  Women)
• Real events and real people may be woven into the
  story. (Across Five Aprils).

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Authors

• Scott ODell
• Christopher Paul Curtis
• Mildred D. Taylor
• Katherine Paterson
• Karen Cushman
• Karen Hesse
• Paul Fleischman
• Ann Rinaldi
• Gary Paulsen
• Patricia MacLachlan
• Walter Dean Meyers

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Scot ODell Award

• Award to historical fiction writer
• Established in 1982
• Goes to US writer for a meritorious book
  published the preceding year

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7 Biography

• A biography tells the story of a persons life
  and achievements an autobiography recreates the
  story of the authors own life.
• Some are chronological some are episodic and
  highlight only a certain period of a persons
  life.
• Collective biographies focus on several
  individuals with commonalities.

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Authors

• Russell Freedman
• Jean Fritz
• David Adler
• Virginia Hamilton
• Patricia McKissack
• Kathleen Krull

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8 Non-Fiction

• Books of information and fact.
• Fiction and nonfiction may both tell a story and
  both may include fact. In nonfiction, the
  emphasis is on facts and concepts.

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Awards for Nonfiction

• Orbis Pictus Award based on accuracy,
  organization, design and style
• Sibert Award Newer award by the ALA in 2001
• Boston Globe-Horn Book Award

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