The Library has an extensive collection of Junior Fiction, Non-fiction, and Picture Books available to all Staff and Students. In the Library Catalogue they will have a location-code of JF (Junior Fiction), JFP (Junior Fiction Picture Books) or JNF (Junior Non-Fiction). We also have children's books in Irish and they will have a code of GJF (Gaeilge Junior Fiction).
To help you explore genres within children's literature we have compiled lists of books we hold according to category and genre (tabs to the left). These lists are not complete - they only highlight some of the range of the library's junior collections and together with our pages on themes and critical texts provide a starting point for exploring children's literature.
| Category | Genre in children’s literature |
|---|---|
| Picture Books | 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. |
| Folklore & fairytales | Literary heritage of humankind. Traditional stories, myths, legends, nursery rhymes, and songs from the past. Oral tradition; no known author. |
| Fantasy | 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. |
| Science Fiction | Based on extending physical laws and scientific principles to their logical outcomes. Stories about what might occur in the future. |
| Realistic Fiction | "What if" stories, illusion of reality. Events could happen in real world, characters seem real; contemporary setting. |
| Historical Fiction | Set in the past, could have happened. Story reconstructs events of past age, things that could have or did occur. |
| 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. |
| Non-fiction | Facts about the real world. Informational books that explain a subject or concept. |