Reading Across Genres

What's a genre? 

A genre is a category or type of book. This is different than book format (is the book a picture book, chapter book, middle grade (upper fiction) book, graphic novel?). Every format of books also has genres within its format. 

I love to challenge readers to read across different genres.

Some of my students have tracked their reading across genres using this book tracker and completed books log (feel free to download and use these!):

Here are genres I commonly talk about with students (and put in this challenge):

• Fantasy/Sci-Fi-- these books contains something magical/unreal, or something scientific or futuristic (like a setting in space or a dystopian book where the author imagines a future where the world has changed). Examples: Harry Potter, Land of Stories, Moon Base Alpha, Aru Shah, Keeper of the Lost Cities, Wings of Fire, Magic Tree House.

• Nonfiction-- something informational or explanatory, not a made-up story. Could be a book about animals, dinosaurs, history, sports, you name it! Some new awesome nonfiction examples for older readers are Shipwrecked & The Mona Lisa Vanishes (this one reads almost like a novel!).

• Realistic Fiction-- these are books with a story that could be true/set in the real world, and are usually set in our generally current time period. You can decide whether you think a book is "realistic" or not. 😉  Some popular ideas: Front Desk, The Penderwicks, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Vanderbeekers, Holes, Babysitters Club.

• Humor-- any book that makes you laugh! Examples: Frindle, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, Timmy Failure, 13-Story Treehouse, Mercy Watson.

• Mystery-- any book where characters have a puzzle or something unknown to figure out. This could include spy books like City Spies and Spy School. More examples: A to Z Mysteries, Greenglass House, Book Scavenger, Masterpiece, Ali Cross.

• Historical Fiction-- a book that takes place in the past. Sorry parents, I hate to say it, but books set in the 1980s or 1990s now qualify as "historical fiction" for our kids. 😂 A few examples: Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales, Island of the Blue Dolphins, By the Great Horned Spoon, The Black Stallion, I Survived... series, A Place to Hang the Moon.

• Classics-- books that have stood the test of time because they’re so good, and/or are popular/respected for more than one generation. Examples: Books by Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, or Beverly Cleary, The Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables.

• Poetry/Novel in Verse-- a book of separate poems, or a novel/chapter book written in the form of poetry/poems (with its own subgenre possibly). Examples: Collections by Shel Silverstein, Odder, Alone, Inside Out and Back Again, Love That Dog, novels by Kwame Alexander.

• Biography/Autobiography-- I combined these two genres for our bingo card. Biographies are books about a real person, and this includes autobiography and memoir which are biographies written by the person they are about, either about their whole life or a particular chapter/theme.  Who/What Was books are great for this category! There are some graphic novels that are actually memoirs like Smile, When Stars Are Scattered, and El Deafo.

Graphic Novels (click link to read my thoughts on them) can be from any genre (have fun!) and include comic books and longer graphic novels or graphic adaptations. 

This is not an exhaustive list. There are more genres and sub-genres. 🤓 Many books fit in more than one genre-- if that's the case, you get to decide where to put it! 

For parents, a little more info... This page was originally written to go with a summer reading genre challenge I created. This mini challenge was inspired by one of my favorite books about reading and literacy, called The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. I highly recommend this book if you would like to learn more about the benefits of choice and reading widely across genres for children's literacy and love of reading. Reading across genres helps kids find what they like and actually stick with reading books that aren't just assigned. Ms. Miller cites research which states that students who simply read more outperform students who don't read as much. 

Ms. Miller's book describes a philosophy and reading challenge called The 40 Book Challenge. My own kids participated in this challenge during their upper elementary school years, and have grown immensely as readers through it. 

Here are a few notes from Ms. Miller that I think also apply to our mini summer challenge (source):

• "The 40 Book Challenge is a personal challenge for each student, not a contest or competition between students or classes. In every competition or contest there are winners and losers. Why would we communicate to our students that they are reading losers?"

• "Honestly, I don’t care if all of my students read 40 books or not. What matters is that students stretch themselves as readers and increase their competence, confidence, and reading motivation through their daily participation in our reading community."

• "Students who haven’t read much may not have found the books that speak to them. Reading buffet-style—tasting all types of books—students can discover what the world of reading has to offer."

• "Developing students’ positive reading identities and development as lifelong readers—these must remain our priorities every day, all year long." YES!