This library guide is a starting place for resources and information about children's literature genres. Use the tabs below to explore genres: biography, fantasy, folklore & folk tales, historical fiction, realistic fiction, and non-fiction. Find some of these titles in the Education Resource Area Collection, Berry Library, 2nd floor. How to find Children's books in the library video shows how to find books using the SSU library catalog. Check out for more Education Resource Area video tutorials here.
| Interdependence of art and text. Story or 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. | |
| Literary heritage of humankind. Traditional stories, myths, legends, nursery rhymes, and songs from the past. Oral tradition; no known author. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Based on extending physical laws and scientific principles to their logical outcomes. Stories about what might occur in the future. | ||
| "What if" stories, illusion of reality. Events could happen in real world, characters seem real; contemporary setting. | ||
| Set in the past, could have happened. Story reconstructs events of past age, things that could have or did occur. | ||
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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. | |
| Facts about the real world. Informational books that explain a subject or concept. | ||
Adapted from Ashland University Libary's LibGuide to children's literature..LibGuide links created by Rukmal Ryder
The Early Reader in Children's Literature and Culture by 
Crossover Picturebooks by 
Textual Transformations in Children's Literature by 
Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature: a Brief Guide by 
Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature by 
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature by 
A to Zoo by 