Digital Learning Commons: Literary Genres: Realistic Fiction

Realistic Fiction

Realistic Fiction includes imagined stories that reflect real life as it is lived today.

Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.
Neil Gaiman, author

Characteristics

Setting: Realistic Fiction is set in the present or recent past. Stories are set in places that are real or could be real.

Plot: Problems or events of the story could really happen.

Characters: Characters behave like real people and deal with realistic problems or real issues.

Themes: Themes could relate to a variety of problems or issues that readers may face in everyday life.

Subgenres

Adventure and Survival: These stories usually involve danger and the characters must survive in the wilderness or under other extraordinary circumstances.

Coming of Age: Stories about a protagonist's growth from youth to adulthood. These stories usually emphasize dialogue or internal monologue over action.

Family and Friendships: Stories that focus on the challenges and joys of the relationships of characters among family and friends.

Humor: Usually light-hearted, comical stories intended to make the reader laugh.

"Issue" Books: Fictionalized stories about challenging or controversial subjects such as violence or substance abuse.

Romance*: Romance stories center around relationships or romantic love. (*Romance is often considered its own genre.)

School Life: A common subgenre of young adult fiction, these stories focus on the everyday trials and tribulations of life for young people at school.

Authors

Randa Abdel-Fattah
Laurie Halse Anderon
Joan Bauer
Meg Cabot
Sharon Creech
Sarah Dessen
Jack Gantos
John Green
Carl Hiaasen
Will Hobbs
Gordon Korman
Ann M. Martin
Wendy Mass
Walter Dean Myers
James Patterson
Gary Paulsen
Mitali Perkins
Jason Reynolds
Rainbow Rowell
Pam Muñoz Ryan
Louis Sachar
Jerry Spinelli
Rachel Vail
Jacqueline Woodson
Nicola Yoon
Ibi Zoboi

Realistic Fiction Poll

What is your favorite kind of Realistic Fiction

Adventure and Survival: 37 votes (50.68%)

Coming of Age: 5 votes (6.85%)

Family and Friendships: 1 votes (1.37%)

Humor: 2 votes (2.74%)

Issue Books: 1 votes (1.37%)

Romance: 8 votes (10.96%)

School Life: 5 votes (6.85%)

All!: 8 votes (10.96%)

Something else: 6 votes (8.22%)

Total Votes: 73

Notable Realistic Fiction

Adventure and Survival

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
Alabama Moon by Watt Key
After the death of his father, ten-year-old Moon leaves their forest shelter home and is sent to an Alabama institution, becoming entangled in the outside world he has never known and making good friends, a relentless enemy, and finally a new life.
The Skeleton Tree by Iain Lawrence
Chris and Frank's sailing vessel sinks and they are stranded alone in the wilds of Alaska. They don't like each other at all, but to survive they must build a relationship.
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean
Fourteen-year-old Symone's vacation to Antarctica turns into a dangerous adventure when her uncle becomes obsessed with seeking Symme's Hole, an opening that may lead to the center the Earth.

Coming of Age

Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center.

Family and Friendships

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.
So B. It by Sarah Weeks
After spending her life with her mentally disabled mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.
You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins
From 1965 through the present, an Indian American family adjusts to life in New York City, alternately fending off and welcoming challenges to their own traditions.

Humor

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson
When Rafe Kane enters middle school, he teams up with his best friend, "Leo the Silent," to create a game to make school more fun by trying to break every rule in the school's code of conduct.

"Issue" Books

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints.

Romance

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The story of a teenage girl who's literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she's ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more.
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
In Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, seventeen-year-olds Sahar and Nasrin love each other in secret until Nasrin's parents announce their daughter's arranged marriage and Sahar proposes a drastic solution.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Lara Jean writes love letters to all the boys she has loved and then hides them in a hatbox until one day those letters are accidentally sent.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
When Dimple Shah and Rishi Patel meet at a Stanford University summer program, Dimple is avoiding her parents' obsession with "marriage prospects" but Rishi hopes to woo her into accepting arranged marriage with him.

School Life

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
In a small Texas town where high school football reigns supreme, Viv, sixteen, starts a feminist revolution using anonymously-written zines.
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
Twelve-year-old Malú reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos.

Realistic or Historical Fiction?

Is there a cut-off date for when a book should be considered Realistic (contemporary) Fiction or Historical Fiction?

If a book is set in the recent past, but focuses on a specific historical event, should it be considered Historical Fiction?

What if a book is set several decades ago, but the story could take place today, should the book be considered Realistic Fiction?

National Book Award Finalists and Winners

American Street by Ibi Zoboi
American Street is an evocative and powerful coming-of-age story. Author Ibi Zoboi draws on her own experience as a young Haitian immigrant, infusing this lyrical exploration of America with magical realism and vodou culture.
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Natasha is a girl who believes in science and facts. Daniel has always been a good son and good student. But when he sees Natasha he forgets all that and believes there is something extraordinary in store for both of them.
The Thing about Luck by Cynthia Kadohata
Just when twelve-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers.
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
A girl, having travelled with her mother to an animal sanctuary for bonobos in the Congo, struggles to survive with the animals after revolution breaks out and she and the chimpanzees are forced to flee into the jungle.
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father.
Dark Water by Laura McNeal
Living in a cottage on her uncle's southern California avocado ranch since her parent's messy divorce, fifteen-year-old Pearl Dewitt meets and falls in love with an illegal migrant worker, and is trapped with him when wildfires approach his makeshift forest home.
Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
Teenage Reese, serving time at a juvenile detention facility, gets a lesson in making it through hard times from an unlikely friend with a harrowing past.

Resources

Printz Award
The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year. (Mixed genres)
National Book Award
Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize administered by the National Book Foundation, which includes a Young People's Literature award. (Mixed genres)