Art Central
Genres of Books
Animal fables, detective stories, undersea adventures and tiny Japanese poems: every genre is a different kind of adventure. Which one will you try next?
Did you know?
The Panchatantra is an old Indian collection of animal fables, written to teach three princes how to live wisely. It has about 200 versions in more than 50 languages, making it India's most translated story book!
Feluda is a clever Bengali detective created by filmmaker Satyajit Ray in 1965 for the children's magazine Sandesh. Feluda lives in Kolkata, and his young cousin Topshe tells his stories.
Jules Verne wrote science fiction more than 150 years ago. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (first published in 1869–70), Captain Nemo travels in an amazing submarine called the Nautilus. Verne is one of the world's most translated authors.
Try this: Write a Haiku
A haiku is a tiny poem from Japan with three lines. In English, we often use 5 syllables (beats), then 7, then 5. Here is one: 'Rain taps on my roof / Paper boats sail down the lane / Frogs sing a loud song.' Clap the beats to check! Now write your own haiku about the weather outside your window.
Go further: Fiction, Non-fiction or Both?
Fiction is made up, and non-fiction is true. But some genres mix the two! Historical fiction places made-up characters in a real time in the past, such as an imaginary child living in the days of the Dandi March. A graphic biography uses comic-style pictures to tell a true life story. Next time you visit a library, check whether fiction and non-fiction books are kept on separate shelves.