Picture books are books where images and ideas join to form the complete meaning. The illustrations are equally as important as any written text to the reader's experience. The images engage the reader and enhance the significance of the story.
Stories passed down through oral storytelling and from generation to generation fall under the broad term traditional literature. Over time and through many tellers, these stories altered, drawing upon each new generation's truth to become the stories we are familiar with today. Rich in tradition and richer in language, traditional literature connects the future to the past. Traditional literature consists of songs, stories, poems and riddles from anonymous sources.
"Folktale” is a general term for numerous varieties of traditional narrative. The telling of stories appears to be a cultural universal, common to primitive and complex societies alike. Even the forms folktales take are demonstrably similar from culture to culture, and comparative studies of themes and narrative techniques have been successful in showing these relationships (Answer.com).
Modern Fantasy themes grew from traditional folktales and the human mind. Today’s fantasy has an identifiable author. In most stories the reader contemplates the struggles between good and evil in the world and thus considers the true meaning of life. Modern fantasy often has a commentary of today’s society interwoven in the themes. Modern Fantasy is similar to Science Fiction but science fiction explores what may happen if today's knowledge of science is used in a certain way.
Contemporary realistic fiction stories are about events that could happen, but did not. Unlike modern fantasy, which exists outside of reality, contemporary realistic fiction is grounded in the possibilities of our reality. This genre is easily confused with historical fiction and even experts will classify these two genres differently. The arbitrary date set in Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature 10e is the 1950s.
The genre of historical fiction in the field of children’s literature includes stories that are written to portray a time period or convey information about a specific time period or an historical event. Usually the event or time period is at least 30 years in the past. Setting is the most important literary element in this genre. Because the author is writing about a particular time in history, the information about the time period must be accurate, authentic, or both.
Historical fiction books—whether they are picture books, transitional books, or novels—may have characters who are either imaginary or who actually lived during the time period. Settings also may be real or imaginary. The plot events may be documented historical events or they may be fictional. If they are fictional, it means that the author created the events for the telling of the story. The fictional characters, settings, and plot events must be portrayed authentically as if they actually could have happened.
Biography is literature that allows readers to glimpse lives they may want to live and helps bridge the gap between non-fiction and historical fiction. Authors of biographies strive for readability while maintaining authenticity of the subject and history. There are two primary types of biographies: Authentic and Fictionalized.
Authentic Biographies must be true in every detail and are well documented, carefully researched accounts of the subject’s life. These types of biographies work very well for adults.
Fictionalized Biographies must be true to factual records and inventions must be believable for the era. However, certain events include invented dialogue and unspoken thoughts (based on journals and diaries.) The author tries to personalize the subject and is able to fictionalize events as long as they remain plausible for the time period.
Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define. (www.about.com)
