Children’s book genres: Why is genre important in kidlit?

• Siobhan O'Brien Holmes
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This is part six of my serialisation of my kidilt genre course Space opera, steampunk and slashers, oh my! I’ll be sharing the content here every week over the coming months but you can grab the full course now if you just can’t wait! Read on for lessons with videos and transcripts.

Genre is super important in kidlit!

Genre labels help children make choices and I truly believe genre is even more important in kidlit than anywhere else because young people are still discovering different types of books and learning what they love, so being able to label them and articulate what they enjoy will help them find more of those sorts of books and expand their horizons even further.

If a child goes into a library or bookshop and just says ‘I’d like a book for children my age, please’ they’re taking a huge gamble and might come away with something they hate. Now, that’s fine – it’s good to try new things and they can return the book if they don’t like it. But if they can say ‘I’d like some dystopian sci-fi’ or ‘have you got any funny graphic novels?’ they’re much more likely to get a book they love and that will help turn them into passionate readers.

I volunteer part time as a primary school librarian and children are always asking me ‘are there any stories about football?’ (Yep! In the sports section) or ‘where are the funny books?’ (Try the ‘joke book’ shelf) or ‘do you have anything scary?’ (Check out this horror display!) Most of these kids know what they want and genre helps them find it.

By labelling books with genres and subgenres, we allow children to take ownership of their reading: they learn what they enjoy and can choose to read more of those sorts of books or try new things without relying on adults to help them pick. They don’t have to identify as just ‘middle grade readers’ or ‘young adult readers’ – they can articulate what they enjoy and don’t enjoy and continue to explore the genres they love across all age categories as their reading skills and comprehension develop.

After all, just because you’re ten doesn’t mean you can only read middle grade! I get year 4s and 5s coming in to the library to borrow picture books, chapter books, comics, non-fiction, middle grade and YA. Relying solely on age categories wouldn’t be any help to these children!

Of course, experimenting and playing with expectations as an author is absolutely encouraged. I know it can feel restrictive to have to operate within genre boundaries when you just want to be creative and go with the flow. But genre is as much a marketing tool as anything and publishing relies on clear categorisation, particularly in children’s books.

Genre-bending and crossovers are less common in middle grade, partly because most younger readers aren’t yet familiar enough with the conventions of particular genres to fully appreciate or seek out mash ups or subverted tropes. Less confident or experienced readers can find it reassuring to recognise and even predict common devices and structures in books.

YA and the upper YA space in particular tends to be more experimental as teens become more versed in the traditions and tropes of their favourite genres and are ready to branch out and find something fresh that challenges them.

Go into your local bookshop and note how the children’s and teen books are shelved. Are there sections labelled for wider genres like fantasy, romance and horror? Is anything shelved differently from how you’d have done it? Where would your manuscript sit? Can you find books in the shop that would appeal to your readers? What genre are they?