Watch: What is genre?
When we talk about a book’s genre, we mean the type or kind of book it is.
There are lots of different genres.
In fiction texts (ones that have been made up from a writer’s imagination) you might find genres such as science fiction (‘sci-fi’), fairy stories, adventure stories and mysteries.
Watch this short video to see some examples of genre.
What does 'genre' in fiction mean?
NARRATOR: There are many different types of fiction genres,
but they all have one thing in common: that the stories are made up.
If these ducks were in a mystery story…
…then there might be a crime for a detective to solve and a mystery to work out…
…or if the ducks were in a science-fiction story…
…it might take place in a futuristic world where everything is wildly different and fantastic.
Each genre has its own style and set of rules.
So whether it is a fairy story where the prince and princess live happily ever after…
…or a scary story with frights and shocks…
…paying attention to genre is important when reading and understanding a story.
Watch: Working out a genre
Each genre has its own style and set of rules. You wouldn't usually expect to find magic spells in a crime story, for example, or a robot in a fairy story!
But how do you know what genre a book is? Watch this video in which teacher Mrs Shaukat shows you how to use clues to spot the genre of a fiction text. Listen carefully and join in with the activities as you watch!
How do we identify different types of stories? Watch this Teacher Talk to find out.
[THEME MUSIC][SCHOOL BELL RING]
MRS SHOUKAT: Hello, I'm Mrs Shoukat, and today we're going to be identifying different types of stories.
I love going into a library or a bookshop and seeing so many different types of stories.
I usually look at the front cover and read the blurb at the back to decide if it's a book I'll enjoy.
Sometimes my friends recommend books to me. I always ask…
"What type of story is it?"
How many types of stories do you know?
Let's take a look at some of the different types.
So, there are:
Traditional stories like fairy tales
Funny stories
Scary stories
Adventure stories
Romance
Sci-fi
Myths and legends
Wow! That's a big list.
Some stories often include more than one of these.
I bet you can think of a story that is funny, scary, and includes an adventure.
Let's do some detective work to see if we can figure out which type of story you've got by looking at some clues.
What do we have here?
A shining gem,
a map,
two boats in a river,
and a ticking clock.
What could be happening in this story?
Maybe they're chasing against time to find the shining gem using the map.
That sounds to me like… an adventure story.
Let's try another one.
Here we have:
A witch
A shiny red apple
A girl sleeping
A palace
What do you think?
We have a palace with a sleeping girl, a witch, and a shiny red apple. That reminds me of something. I think this could be a fairy tale.
When it comes to books, we usually have an idea of the type of story from the title, the front cover, and the blurb on the back.The content of the story can give us lots of clues too.
Let's see how good you are at sorting some of these ideas into different types of story.
I'm going to give you some more clues by describing a scene in the story. And I want you to tell me where you would put it in the grid. Shout the answers out and then we'll see if we thought the same.
First off, we have an old, dark creepy house.
What kind of story would you see one of those in?
Shout out where you think it would go.
I would put it in the scary story column.
I think that's where we're most likely to see one of those.
If you said a different answer, don't worry.
It doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong. You might see an old, dark creepy house in other types of story too.
Let's have a look at another one.
In my next story, an alien arrives in a spaceship.
What type of story would that be?
Shout out where you think it should go.
I would put it on the sci-fi.
That's short for science fiction.
Science fiction stories often include space travel and aliens.
OK, one more.
I'm holding one of the clues for you which should help.
A small boy defeats a dragon.
What type of story might that happen in? Pause the video if you need time to have a think. And shout it out when you know.
A dragon is a mythical creature.
So where would we put that under?
Myth or legend?
Well done!
I think we've got sorting story sorted.
Why not try writing the grid down yourself and sorting these ideas into the columns where you think they should go?
Animals that can talk
Creatures that are half man, half animal
A world where everything is upside down
A ghost moving things around
A prince kissing a princess
If you're feeling really brainy, you could even add some more categories of your own. And really think about what makes that story a specific story type.
Have fun sorting stories!
For more help, challenges and games on this subject, visit bbc.co.uk/bitesize.
Some stories can include more than one genre. A story could contain elements of sci-fi and adventure, or myths and scary stories.
Before you read a book, you can find clues about its genre by reading the title, the blurb on the back of the book or by reading a short extract from within the book.
Non-fiction genres
There are also genres in non-fiction books. For example, recipe books, instruction manuals, history books and biographies.
These books also follow their own styles and sets of rules. You wouldn’t expect to see a list of instructions in a history book, for instance, or lots of dates and names in a recipe book!
Activity 1
How good are you at working out the genre of a book just by reading a few sentences?
Have a go at this quiz to test your skills so far!
Activity 2
Now it’s time to try the sorting activity Mrs Shaukat describes in the Teacher Talk video from 04:39 to 05:19.
Here are some ideas which could appear in a story:
• A story set in space
• A ghost moving things around
• A prince kissing a princess
• A monster hiding under the bed
• A character talking to animals
• An alien invasion
You need to sort them into the story types shown in the table below.
You could copy the table out onto some paper and write the features out into the correct column.
Remember: Some features may fit into more than one genre.
| Fairy tale | Scary story | Science fiction |
|---|---|---|
Activity 3
Activity 4
An event or specific situation in a story could be written about in lots of different ways, depending on the story’s genre. This is because genre affects a story’s style.
1. Click on the image to the right to see an example of the same event in a story being told in three different genres.
Read through the texts carefully and think about how the writer has made each one fit its particular genre.
What clues do they give to help you to imagine what's taking place?
2. Over to you! Look at the table below. Write sentences to describe the story events in the two genres that are shown next to them. Write at least two sentences for each one.
| Story event | Genre |
|---|---|
| A character meets someone else | 1) Adventure story 2) Ghost story |
| A character finds something | 1) Mystery story 2) Sci-fi story |
Choose words carefully that will suit your genre, to make it really clear to the reader. Think of interesting characters and places, as well as good adjectives, metaphors or similes to describe them.
Activity 5
The paragraph about wolves below should have been written as an adventure story, but the author wrote it for an information book by mistake!
Read the paragraph carefully and think about how you could rewrite it to change the genre.
Wolves hunt in packs of around five to eight animals, but packs can be much bigger than that. A wolf has 42 teeth. Wolves live in family groups in a den, and they can run at 40 miles per hour (as fast as a horse!) over short distances. Wolves howl to communicate. A wolf's howl can carry for many miles.
For example, the information 'Wolves hunt in packs of around five to eight animals' could be rewritten as:
As the moon rose high above the mountains, the soft sound of five wolves setting out to hunt whispered in the still night air.
Now you have a go! Choose three other facts and rewrite them in the style of an adventure story.
You could use some of these sentence starters to help you:
- Just then…
- All of a sudden…
- Turning around, she/he…
- In the distance, they…
- Out of nowhere, a…
- After a while, it…
Play our fun English game Crystal Explorers! game
Use grammar, punctuation and spelling skills to explore jungles, caves and tombs on your mission.
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