Mystery

Genre Study:

Mystery fiction texts are a genre of fiction that typically focuses the plot of the story and the actions of the characters on the investigation of a crime or investigation of a puzzle. Mystery fiction can also be referred to as detective fiction or crime fiction because the novel or story involves a character that is either a professional detective or behaves like an investigator or detective in order to solve a puzzle or crime. The emphasis of most mystery fiction stories is on a puzzle or suspense element in which the characters experience successes and failures in the process of discovering the solution or cracking a code. Readers are able to engage in the suspenseful actions of the plot by thinking about the mystery and investigation and trying to discover the solutions along with the characters of the text. Sometimes mystery fiction texts include a supernatural or thriller mystery where the solution does not seem logical and may not involve a crime. Throughout the plot of most mystery fiction novels, the characters are required to use clues, codes, puzzles, and wit to solve a problem or a crime. Mysteries have the ability to get reluctant readers and writers enthusiastic about reading, thinking, and writing, because they keep the audience engaged and suspended in the action and components of the text.

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Selected Titles:

Stanley, G. E., & Murdocca, S. (2000). Third grade detectives: The clue of the left-handed envelope. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks.

This text has a Lexile level of 370L and a grade level measure of 1^st grade to 4^th grade. Students who read this text will be engaged in the content because it provides visuals for the clues that the characters are trying to solve so the readers can solve the mystery along with the characters. Readers will want to continue reading so they can find out if they are able to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed in the text. Because this is the first book of a short series of third grade detective books, the students who enjoy reading the text will be motivated to continue reading the other books in the series. The end of each chapter is a cliffhanger that keeps readers wanting to continue to read and not put down the book. This book would be great to use as a whole class read aloud because the teacher can get the students involved in the mystery and then after finishing the book the students will want to continue reading the next books in the series.

Riordan, R. (2008). The maze of bones. New York: Scholastic.

This book is a very intriguing and engaging read and it keeps readers not wanting to put it down because they will want to continue to find more clues with the characters. The end of this book makes readers want to continue to read the next books in the series because it ends with the characters still searching for the next clue of the challenge. This is a fictional text that incorporates informational aspects into the book to provide the reader with action, adventure, mystery, and information. Students can relate to the characters in the novel because they are a 14-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy. Students will also be engaged in the text because it incorporates a chance for them to go online and discover more about the clues and challenges so they can be investigators and detectives just like how Dan and Amy are in the book.

Illustrated Story and Picture Book

Genre Study:

Illustrated stories and picture books are a literacy genre that provide a strong visual experience where the content of the story is fully explained or illustrated with pictures and may or may not include text. The overall theme of illustrated stories and picture books are generally more complex than the text that is presented because the purpose for this genre is to portray a meaningful moral or theme. In picture books, both text and illustration are fused together, to provide more than either can do alone, so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts in these texts. Illustrated story books are different from picture books in the sense that the text can stand alone and the illustrations are secondary to the text, yet they complements the text. Picture books and illustrated story books are generally up to 48 pages in length and they are used in the classroom to promote fluency because they can be read multiple times during one reading instructional period or several times in a short amount of time so the students can build fluency, accuracy, vocabulary skills, and comprehension. Picture books and illustrated stories are most often aimed at young children, and while some may have very basic language especially designed to help children develop their reading skills, most are written with vocabulary a child can understand but not necessarily read. For this reason, picture books tend to have two functions in the lives of children: they are first read to young children by adults, and then children read them themselves once they begin learning to read.

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Selected Titles:

George, J., & Small, D. (2000). So you want to be president?. New York: Philomel Books.

This text has a grade level equivalent of 4.2, meaning it is appropriate for fourth grade students in their second month of the year, and it has a Lexile level of 730L. Caldecott honor-winning artist David Small provides hilarious cartoons of the Presidents of the United States to keep readers engaged and interested in the content of the text. This text is a great tool for a classroom read-aloud because the voice of the text is conversational and it provides information in an engaging and funny manner. Students will also enjoy reading this text on their own because they will learn about the Presidents while looking at brilliantly drawn illustrations. This illustrated story is a great source for multi-disciplinary topics to connect to social studies and history. When observing the text complexity of So You Want to be President? the vocabulary, conventionality, sentence structure, life experiences, and cultural knowledge are very complex but the meaning and us of visual features are moderately complex.

Stein, D. E. (2010). Interrupting chicken. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press.

Interrupting Chicken’s plot has a repetitive nature, with a humorous story line and a good underlying message for young children. The interest level of Interrupting Chicken is for kindergartners to 2^nd graders. The Lexile level is 300L and the grade level equivalent is for 2nd grade. Interrupting Chicken was awarded the 2011 Caldecott Honorable Mention Book Award because it is a distinguished American picture book for children. The book and story are engaging for young children because the illustrations keep the readers involved in the story and the students can easily interact and practice predicting what is going to happen in the story. This book is also a great resource for a classroom read-aloud because the reader can incorporate fun voices for the characters in the story to keep students engaged. This text can also be used to teach vocabulary and dialogue for students when they read and they can transfer what they learn about dialogue to their own writing.

21st Century Texts

Genre Study:

21^st Century genres are pieces of literature that employ sequential visual storytelling through symbol, image, and/or multi-media formats to convey meaning. Successful comprehension of 21^st century literature depends on decoding message modalities beyond text alone. 21^st century literature can be broken down into different subgenres known as graphic novels, digi-fiction, doodle fiction, manga fiction, and illustrated novels. Graphic novels are narratives in a comic book format that are either fiction or non-fiction. Graphic novels can be original stories or remakes of stories that were originally written as a traditional novel and there are even classic novels that have been rewritten as graphic novels. Manga is a Japanese word that means comic. Manga fiction is usually used in English-speaking countries as a generic term for all comic books and graphic novels originally published in Japan. Manga fiction is a specific artistic and storytelling style of literature. Manga usually follows the traditional reading style of Japan: from right to left. Digi-fiction is a subgenre that combines three media: book, movie/video, and an Internet website. The reader must be engaged in all three media in order to understand the full story. Illustrated novels are usually 50 percent illustrations and 50 percent text. The story from an illustrated novel cannot be fully comprehended without interpreting the images. Doodle fiction has hand-scribed font and images are incorporated in place of traditional typed font. The drawings enhance the story and they often add humorous elements that keep readers engaged.

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Selected Titles:

Selznick, B. (2007). The invention of hugo cabret: A novel in words and pictures. New York: Scholastic Press.

This book has a Lexile level of 820L and the appropriate reading level for this text is grades 3-7. The author of this text tells the story with a combination of illustrations and words, 284 of the pages are illustrations and the story cannot be fully comprehended without taking a complete consideration of the illustrations. Students can connect to the text because two of the main characters are children about 12 years of age. This is a great book for struggling readers and reluctant readers because it is a thick book with 526 pages yet many of the pages are illustrations and some pages have text but not that many words on the page. Struggling readers will have a sense of accomplishment when they are reading this book and they can gain confidence in their reading ability. Students will learn how to connect the story that is told in words to the parts of the story that are told in pictures.

Pilkey, D. (1997). The adventures of captain underpants: An epic novel. New York: Blue Sky Press.

This text is a great resource for boy readers and reluctant readers because it is a graphic novel that is written in a comic book design with cartoons and friendly text features. The hand-scribed images and cartoons allow readers to be engaged with the text and experience humor and interaction with the text.  This book as a Lexile level of 720L and the appropriate grade level is 2nd-5th and appropriate for ages 7-10. The author of this book allows readers to get the chance to interact with graphics, engaging activities, and funny inserts that keep readers engaged with the text. Kids will love to read about the goofy and hilarious stories in this series of Captain Underpants graphic novels and they are great texts for independent reading. Boys will love to read these books because they are about two boys who create their own comic book hero named Captain Underpants and they get themselves into trouble and in funny situations.

Adventure

Genre Study:

Adventure novels are stories that are dominated by action and commonly involve danger, risk, excitement, and suspense. The action in adventure texts is fast-paced and keeps the reader engaged with the plot of the story. Generally, the events in an adventure story are more remarkable and extraordinary than the actions that occur in everyday life, yet some stories can have a plot that is more realistic than others. The theme throughout most adventure stories typically revolves around the hero of the story and how the actions in the plot change the hero in some way. The setting of most adventure novels is located in exotic or unfamiliar territories. The central focus and premise of adventure novels is for the reader to engage with the action that occurs to the characters and the authors spend less time on character development to focus on the action development and details. The conflicts of the literary novels are usually defined as one of the following: man versus nature, man versus man, man versus society, and man versus self. Adventure fiction novels generally focus the conflicts of the plot on exciting and thrilling scenes such as man versus nature as seen in Gary Paulsen’s novels about Brian Robeson, and man versus man or man versus society as in novels that involve war or fighting.

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Selected Titles:

Paulsen, G. (1987). Hatchet. New York: Bradbury Press.

            This text is an appropriate reading level for students in grades 5 through 8 and is has a Lexile level of 1020L. The plot of the text keeps readers interested and engaged because of the exciting, dangerous, risky, and adventurous action in the book. This book is good for students to connect with because the main character, Brian, is a thirteen-year-old boy with divorced parents and he finds himself stranded in the woods and has to try to survive. Readers can empathize and visualize themselves in Brian’s situation as he struggles through his conflict with the Canadian woods and a plane crash. The plot of the book will keep students thinking about the situations that Brian has to deal with because they are realistic situations that students might be able to imagine themselves in. Students who read Hatchet will want to continue to read the other stories about Brian’s adventures like The River, Brian’s Winter, Brian’s Return, Brian’s Hunt because Gary Paulsen ends Hatchet with Brian still in the woods but a rescuer has just arrived so they will want to know what happens next to Brian.

Gardiner, J. R., & Sewall, M. (1980). Stone Fox. New York: Crowell.

This text is appropriate for students in grades 3-5 and it has a Lexile level of 550L. Stone Fox is great for students to stay engaged because they will be intrigued to find out what is going to happen next and to find out if the boy can survive and prevail throughout the action and danger of the plot. Students will be able to read through this text smoothly and quickly because of its textual structure and the plot flows very smoothly. Students can relate to this text because the main character is a 10-year old boy who is trying to take responsibility for his grandfather’s debt. Students will enjoy reading about a boy their age that is brave and adventurous. This book can be used to discuss topics in social studies about Native American history and history in the Rocky Mountains.

Historical Fiction

Genre Study:

Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the action and the setting of the text is sometime in the past. The setting is drawn from history and often contains real historical people and settings. Although the plot and characters of the text are fictional, they are realistic characters that could actually exist in the real world. The importance of historical fiction texts is that they often portray the manners and social conditions of the people and setting of the historical contexts that are presented in the story. The authors pay particular attention to the details of the period of history in which the text is presented. Some literary experts expect that historical fiction texts be written at least fifty years after the events that are described in the text. The plots of historical fiction novels usually have major historical events taking place mostly off-stage while the fictional characters take part in realistic yet fictional events on-stage. When selecting texts in the historical fiction genre it is important to consider that they texts include several plot components that incorporate real historical information so that students can make connections from the literacy instruction to their social studies instruction and other content area instruction. Historical fiction texts are a great way to get students to read literature that can be incorporated through multiple content areas in the classroom.

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Selected Titles:

Williams-Garcia, R. (2010). One crazy summer. New York: Amistad.

            This text is a quality historical fiction text for students in grades 4-7 and the ages of 8-12. When students read this book they will understand how people lived in Oakland during the 1960s and how the Black Panther social group impacted the society of the United States in the late 1960s. As students read this book, they will learn about real historical figures like Huey Newton, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cassius Clay, Bobby Hutton, and Malcom X as well as historical events and facts about the Black Panthers, the Vietnam war, civil rights, and the protests of the 1960s. This text is good for students between the ages of 8 and 12 because the main characters of the text are school-aged children between the ages of about 5 and 13 who participate in activities that most children can relate to. Students will have a chance to empathize with other children who have divorced or single parents because the characters live with their father and grandmother in Brooklyn, New York but they go to visit their mother in Oakland, California. I would recommend this book to any elementary teacher, students in the grades 4, 5, 6, or 7 and anybody who wants to read a good story that involves historical scenes from the Black Panther movement of the 1960s. Before or during reading this text, students will need to gain some background knowledge or background information about what was happening in the world and the United States during the 1960s to avoid misconceptions or confusions.

MacLachlan, P. (1985). Sarah, plain and tall. New York: Harper & Row.

This text is appropriate for grade levels of 1^st grade to 5^th grade and it has a Lexile level of 560L. This book will help readers understand what life was like in the late 19th century living on a farm somewhere on the prairie. The book is told from the perspective of a young girl whose mother died after giving birth to her younger brother and whose father is a farmer. Readers will connect with the text because it is told from the perspective of a child so they will be able to picture living during that time and in that setting. Students will need some background knowledge about the late 1800s and what the Midwestern United States looked like during that time to be able to better understand some concepts of the text. I would recommend this text to anyone who has already read some books about the prairie life such as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie and other young readers who are just beginning to read chapter books because it is a shorter chapter book that is good for beginning readers.