Genreflecting ~ Recommended Books
Grades 6-8

I have re-vamped my "recommended books" pages and organized the books I have read and recommended, by genre. I hope you know what genre is, but in case you missed those lessons; genre is grouping by type. Although you may be most familiar with the word used in literature class, paintings may also be grouped by type.

Books in the library are generally grouped by fiction and non-fiction. Non-fiction is ordered on the shelves by subject in numerical order, but that is another lesson. Fiction is ordered alphabetically by author's last name. Some people ask why fiction books are not ordered by type as well and some libraries will do that. Most do not and our school library does not. One reason why I would not group by type is that many authors write across genres. Avi is probably the best example of an author who does not stick to one genre. He has written over fifty books, historical fiction, realistic, fantasy and some mystery!

Some readers read just one genre. A student may come into the library wanting only science fiction. Some readers like to read everything an author has written. Keyword searching in the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) will get you either author or genre.

For those of you who would prefer a list of books by author, I have provided one with links from the titles to the annotation on the appropriate genre page. Click on the words "list of books."

I borrowed the term genreflecting from a book called Teen Genreflecting, by Diana Tixier Herald. This informative book is a bibliography or guide to books by genre.