CSET Practice Test On Reading, Language, and Literature

Genres in Children's Literature Based on the work of
Rebecca J. Lukens


Realism Animal Realism Historical Fiction Sports Stories
Formula Fiction - Mysteries

Fantasy Fantastic Stories High Fantasy Science Fiction

Traditional Literature Fables Folktales Myths Legends Folk
Epics     

Poetry

Classics

Realism

Realism means that a story is possible, although not
necessarily probable. Realistic stories have in common
several characteristics: they are fictional narratives
with characters who are involved in some kind of action
that holds our interest, set in some place and time.

Subgenres of Realism

Animal realism deals accurately with animals, telling the
details of their appearances, their habitats, and their
life cycles. Example: The Incredible Journey by Shiela
Burnford. The three pets that determinedly battle with
nature to return to their masters through the wilds of
Canada. Another example: Farley Mowat's Owls in the
Family. Billy, a human character, telling a story about
owls.

Historical fiction is when the protagonist has universal
human traits, but is a product of the time and place.
History presents facts. To turn facts into fiction, the
writer must combine imagination with fact, bringing about
an itegrated story with a fictional protagonist in a
suspenseful plot. Sometimes little is known of the period,
and at other times much is known; it is possible to write
historical fiction about the Vikings, like Hakon of
Rogen's Saga by Erik Haugaard as well as about the
American colonies, like The Witch of Blackbird Pond by
Elizabeth Speare.

Sports stories are with well-developed characters
struggling with personal issues and discovering the forces
and choices they must confront. Because children take gym
classes, watch televised sports, and are involved in
organized sports after school, sport is part of their
lives. A sport story of excellent quality is Bruce
Brooks's The Moves Make the Man.

Formula fiction stories follow distinct patterns. A
popular type of formula fiction are Mysteries and
Thrillers. Mystery stories are set in any time, historical
or futuristic, as well as the present. They rely for
suspense upon unexplained events and actions that are
sometimes, by story's end, resolved or explained by
reasonable and carefully detected discoveries.

Fantasy

Fantasy, in the phrase of Coleridge, requires "the willing
suspension of disbelief." The writer of fantasy creates
another world for characters and readers, asking the
readers believe this other world could and does exist
within the framework of the book. 

Subgenres of Fantasy

Fantastic stories are stories that are realistic in most
details but still requiring us to willingly suspend our
disbelief. Examples of such fantasy are Borrowers books of
Mary Norton, showing the daily lives of tiny people who
face everyday problems like our own and make discoveries
about fear of the unknown and about the disruption of
family life through greed. Another example is Virginia
Hamilton's Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, in which
everything seems realistic except the appearance of
ghostlike Brother Rush. Tree is convinced he is the ghost
of her uncle, and that he takes her into the past to
reveal details about her father and mother.  Other
fantastic stories are about characters that are not people
but are represented as people because they talk or live in
houses like ours, have feelings like our own, or lead
lives like those of human beings such as Hans Christian
Andersen's The Ugly Duckling and E.B. White's Charlotte's
Web, or Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Their
themes are about human life: Growing up is fraught with
trauma; no one appreciates the humble; a community
supports its members, no matter how foolish. 

High fantasy is primarily characterized by its focus on
the conflict between good and evil. If it is successful,
it captures our belief in two major ways: first, by the
internal consistency of the new world, like the categories
or classes of small, nonhuman beings in The Lord of the
Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein; and second, by the protagonist's
belief in his or her experience.

Science fiction is a type of fantasy, and it is often
difficult to decide whether a particular work is pure
fantasy or science fiction. Science fiction usually
stresses scientific laws and technological inventions-like
gravity and the speed of light and the contrivances with
which to deal with these forces and limitations. In Susan
Beth Pfeffer's Future Foward, Scott and Kelly, by
traveling back in time, save their neighbor Pop from being
injured in a robbery of his store.

Traditional Literature

The term "traditional" implies that the form comes to us
from the ordinary person, an anonymous storyteller, and
exists orally rather than in writing-at least until some
collector finds records, and publishes the stories or
rhymes, thus setting them into temporary form.

Subgenre's of Traditional Literature

The fable is a very brief story, usually with animal
characters, that points clearly to a moral or lesson. The
moral, an explicit and didactic or preachy theme, is
usually included at the end of the story and is the reason
for the existence of the fable. The fable makes visible
and objective some lesson like that we see in The Tortoise
and the Hare: slow but sure wins the race. Everything in
the fable exists to make an abstract point, to make a
lesson clear, as clear as the moral in The Milkmaid who
dreamily drops her basket of eggs on the way to the market
: don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Folktales rely on flat characters, bad ones and good ones,
easily recognized. Since folktales were heard by the
teller and then retold in the teller's own words, there
was hardly time for subtle character development. Stock
characters, like the fairy godmother and the wicked
stepmother in Cinderella frequently appear. Conflicts are
often between people or personified animals in person-
versus-person conflict, like Jack and the ogre in Jack and
the Beanstalk. In Eurpoean tales, incidents can occur
singly, in threes as they do in The Billy Goats Gruff.
Point of view is rarely first person, since the tales are
told about flat characters in fantastic situations. Tone
varies; it may be sentimental as in Beauty and the Beast,
objective as in The Little Red Hen, or humorous as in The
Squire's Bride.

Myths are stories that originate in the beliefs of nations
and races and present episodes in which supernatural
forces operate. Because they, too, are handed down by word
of mouth, they have no right or wrong form. Myths, like
that of the god Thor and his hammer of thunder, are
stories that interpret natural phenomena.

Legends are similar to myths because both are traditional
narratives of a people; sometimes the two subgenres are
interwoven. Legends, however, often have more historical
truth and less reliance upon the supernatural. Although
there was a King Arthur, most stories about him are not
historical truth but legend. The grandeur of the legend is
maintained in The Legend of King Arthur as it is retold by
Robin Lister, beginning with Arthur's pulling the sword
from the stone and setting up the Round Table, to his love
and loss of Guinevere and his final departure for the
magic isle of Avalon. 

The folk epic is a long narrative poem of unknown
authorship about an outstanding or royal character in a
series of adventures related to that heroic central
figure. This character or hero is, like Beowulf, larger
than life, grand in all proportions, and superhuman in
physical and moral qualities. Few retellers are so
masterful as Rosemary Sutcliff, who tells of Finn MacCool
and of the Hound of Ulster.

Poetry

Poetry, a kind of imaginative and artistic writing, can
also be called a genre of literature. A lyric, or
"personal poem" may have balladlike qualities-a refrain,
for example-and a narrative may have lyric or songlike
passages. Compactness is essential to poetry to make words
say much more than literal or denotative meaning. 

Classics

Classics are books that have worn well, attracting readers
from one generation to the next. They cross all genre
lines; they are historical fiction and high fantasy. The
Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnet, after a
generation of being little read have returned to become
regarded as classics. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
remains an incomparable work of nonsense; readers have
never outgrown Carroll's wit, and his playful
inventiveness remains unsurpassed. Another classic is E.B.
White's finest novel, Charlotte's Web. White's thorough
portrayal of character and his choice of life-and-death
conflict, his affectionately humorous tone, and his
universal themes about friendship, satisfaction, and death
are elements that identify classics.

Genres in Children's Literature Based on the work of
Rebecca J. Lukens


Realism Animal Realism Historical Fiction Sports Stories
Formula Fiction - Mysteries

Fantasy Fantastic Stories High Fantasy Science Fiction

Traditional Literature Fables Folktales Myths Legends Folk
Epics     

Poetry

Classics

Realism

Realism means that a story is possible, although not
necessarily probable. Realistic stories have in common
several characteristics: they are fictional narratives
with characters who are involved in some kind of action
that holds our interest, set in some place and time.

Subgenres of Realism

Animal realism deals accurately with animals, telling the
details of their appearances, their habitats, and their
life cycles. Example: The Incredible Journey by Shiela
Burnford. The three pets that determinedly battle with
nature to return to their masters through the wilds of
Canada. Another example: Farley Mowat's Owls in the
Family. Billy, a human character, telling a story about
owls.

Historical fiction is when the protagonist has universal
human traits, but is a product of the time and place.
History presents facts. To turn facts into fiction, the
writer must combine imagination with fact, bringing about
an itegrated story with a fictional protagonist in a
suspenseful plot. Sometimes little is known of the period,
and at other times much is known; it is possible to write
historical fiction about the Vikings, like Hakon of
Rogen's Saga by Erik Haugaard as well as about the
American colonies, like The Witch of Blackbird Pond by
Elizabeth Speare.

Sports stories are with well-developed characters
struggling with personal issues and discovering the forces
and choices they must confront. Because children take gym
classes, watch televised sports, and are involved in
organized sports after school, sport is part of their
lives. A sport story of excellent quality is Bruce
Brooks's The Moves Make the Man.

Formula fiction stories follow distinct patterns. A
popular type of formula fiction are Mysteries and
Thrillers. Mystery stories are set in any time, historical
or futuristic, as well as the present. They rely for
suspense upon unexplained events and actions that are
sometimes, by story's end, resolved or explained by
reasonable and carefully detected discoveries.

Fantasy

Fantasy, in the phrase of Coleridge, requires "the willing
suspension of disbelief." The writer of fantasy creates
another world for characters and readers, asking the
readers believe this other world could and does exist
within the framework of the book. 

Subgenres of Fantasy

Fantastic stories are stories that are realistic in most
details but still requiring us to willingly suspend our
disbelief. Examples of such fantasy are Borrowers books of
Mary Norton, showing the daily lives of tiny people who
face everyday problems like our own and make discoveries
about fear of the unknown and about the disruption of
family life through greed. Another example is Virginia
Hamilton's Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, in which
everything seems realistic except the appearance of
ghostlike Brother Rush. Tree is convinced he is the ghost
of her uncle, and that he takes her into the past to
reveal details about her father and mother.  Other
fantastic stories are about characters that are not people
but are represented as people because they talk or live in
houses like ours, have feelings like our own, or lead
lives like those of human beings such as Hans Christian
Andersen's The Ugly Duckling and E.B. White's Charlotte's
Web, or Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Their
themes are about human life: Growing up is fraught with
trauma; no one appreciates the humble; a community
supports its members, no matter how foolish. 

High fantasy is primarily characterized by its focus on
the conflict between good and evil. If it is successful,
it captures our belief in two major ways: first, by the
internal consistency of the new world, like the categories
or classes of small, nonhuman beings in The Lord of the
Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein; and second, by the protagonist's
belief in his or her experience.

Science fiction is a type of fantasy, and it is often
difficult to decide whether a particular work is pure
fantasy or science fiction. Science fiction usually
stresses scientific laws and technological inventions-like
gravity and the speed of light and the contrivances with
which to deal with these forces and limitations. In Susan
Beth Pfeffer's Future Foward, Scott and Kelly, by
traveling back in time, save their neighbor Pop from being
injured in a robbery of his store.

Traditional Literature

The term "traditional" implies that the form comes to us
from the ordinary person, an anonymous storyteller, and
exists orally rather than in writing-at least until some
collector finds records, and publishes the stories or
rhymes, thus setting them into temporary form.

Subgenre's of Traditional Literature

The fable is a very brief story, usually with animal
characters, that points clearly to a moral or lesson. The
moral, an explicit and didactic or preachy theme, is
usually included at the end of the story and is the reason
for the existence of the fable. The fable makes visible
and objective some lesson like that we see in The Tortoise
and the Hare: slow but sure wins the race. Everything in
the fable exists to make an abstract point, to make a
lesson clear, as clear as the moral in The Milkmaid who
dreamily drops her basket of eggs on the way to the market:
don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Folktales rely on flat characters, bad ones and good ones,
easily recognized. Since folktales were heard by the
teller and then retold in the teller's own words, there
was hardly time for subtle character development. Stock
characters, like the fairy godmother and the wicked
stepmother in Cinderella frequently appear. Conflicts are
often between people or personified animals in person-
versus-person conflict, like Jack and the ogre in Jack and
the Beanstalk. In Eurpoean tales, incidents can occur
singly, in threes as they do in The Billy Goats Gruff.
Point of view is rarely first person, since the tales are
told about flat characters in fantastic situations. Tone
varies; it may be sentimental as in Beauty and the Beast,
objective as in The Little Red Hen, or humorous as in The
Squire's Bride.

Myths are stories that originate in the beliefs of nations
and races and present episodes in which supernatural
forces operate. Because they, too, are handed down by word
of mouth, they have no right or wrong form. Myths, like
that of the god Thor and his hammer of thunder, are
stories that interpret natural phenomena.

Legends are similar to myths because both are traditional
narratives of a people; sometimes the two subgenres are
interwoven. Legends, however, often have more historical
truth and less reliance upon the supernatural. Although
there was a King Arthur, most stories about him are not
historical truth but legend. The grandeur of the legend is
maintained in The Legend of King Arthur as it is retold by
Robin Lister, beginning with Arthur's pulling the sword
from the stone and setting up the Round Table, to his love
and loss of Guinevere and his final departure for the
magic isle of Avalon. 

The folk epic is a long narrative poem of unknown
authorship about an outstanding or royal character in a
series of adventures related to that heroic central
figure. This character or hero is, like Beowulf, larger
than life, grand in all proportions, and superhuman in
physical and moral qualities. Few retellers are so
masterful as Rosemary Sutcliff, who tells of Finn MacCool
and of the Hound of Ulster.

Poetry

Poetry, a kind of imaginative and artistic writing, can
also be called a genre of literature. A lyric, or
"personal poem" may have balladlike qualities-a refrain,
for example-and a narrative may have lyric or songlike
passages. Compactness is essential to poetry to make words
say much more than literal or denotative meaning. 

Classics

Classics are books that have worn well, attracting readers
from one generation to the next. They cross all genre
lines; they are historical fiction and high fantasy. The
Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnet, after a
generation of being little read have returned to become
regarded as classics. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
remains an incomparable work of nonsense; readers have
never outgrown Carroll's wit, and his playful
inventiveness remains unsurpassed. Another classic is E.B.
White's finest novel, Charlotte's Web. White's thorough
portrayal of character and his choice of life-and-death
conflict, his affectionately humorous tone, and his
universal themes about friendship, satisfaction, and death
are elements that identify classics.