Genre Bingo

Book genres on bingo cards: read one and cross it off, or call the meanings as a review game.

Tap a square to mark it. For a PDF, press Print and choose Save as PDF.

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5 × 5
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Genre list, 51 genres. Paste your own to replace it, or type to add to it.

Cards per printed page

What you type stays in this browser. It is only put into a link when you press Share.

Ready to play

51 genres in the bag

Every genre is called once, in random order.

Playing with 51 genres. The game is kept in this browser until you start a new one.

Called so far 0

Nothing called yet. Each call is listed here so a winning card can be checked.

Next step Log each book as it is finishedPrint reading challenge cards

How it works

Genre bingo with 51 book genres, from Mystery to Memoir. Each 5 × 5 card draws 24 of them around a Free choice center, and a pupil crosses off a genre after finishing a book in it.

Read the full guide

As a reading challenge

Hand out a card for the month or the term. The title of each finished book goes in the square of its genre. The list under the cards gives a one-line meaning for every genre, so a pupil can check a book before starting it.

As a called review game

Press Call the game and read the meaning, not the name: A story with unbelievable parts, told like a true account. Pupils who have Tall tale mark it. The printed call sheet doubles as the answer key.

  • A graphic novel that is also a mystery fits two squares. Let one book earn one square.

Questions and answers

What are the main genres of books?

The two big families are fiction, which is made up, and nonfiction, which sets out to tell about the real world. Inside them sit genres such as mystery, fantasy, historical fiction, biography and memoir.

What is the difference between a myth, a legend and a fable?

A fable is a short story with a moral, often told with talking animals. A legend tells of people and deeds said to be historical. A myth is a traditional story central to a society, such as how its world took form.

Is a graphic novel a genre?

Strictly it is a format: a book-length work told in comics, which can be fiction or nonfiction. It has its own square here, as picture books and manga do, so those books count toward a card.

All 51 genres

Fiction 21

  • Adventure A story full of danger and excitement.
  • Alternate history A story in which a real event of the past turns out differently.
  • Chapter book A story for readers of about 7 to 10, told mostly in words and split into short sections.
  • Coming-of-age story A story that follows a young person growing up.
  • Detective story A story where an investigator follows the clues to solve a crime.
  • Dystopian fiction A story set in an imagined society where people lead fearful, unhappy lives.
  • Fantasy A story with magic or other supernatural things, often set in an imaginary world.
  • Ghost story A story with a spirit that haunts a place, a thing or a person.
  • Historical fiction A made-up story set during real events of the past.
  • Humor A story written to make you laugh.
  • Mystery A story where a puzzling event, often a crime, stays unexplained until the end.
  • Novel in letters Fiction told through messages the characters write to each other, or through their diary entries.
  • Realistic fiction A made-up story whose setting is real and whose events could believably happen.
  • School story A story whose main setting is the daily life of pupils with their classmates and teachers.
  • Science fiction A story that imagines future technology: space travel, robots, time machines.
  • Short story Fiction brief enough to read in one sitting.
  • Sports story A story about athletes, built around games and competitions.
  • Spy story A story about secret agents and their missions.
  • Superhero story A story about costumed crime-fighters with special powers.
  • Time travel A story where characters move to the past or to the future.
  • Western A story set on the American frontier of the 1800s.

Traditional stories 11

  • Epic A very long poem that tells of the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters.
  • Fable A short story, often with animals that talk, that teaches a moral lesson.
  • Fairy tale A short traditional story with magic, enchantments and make-believe beings.
  • Folktale A story passed on by word of mouth long before anyone wrote it down.
  • Legend A traditional story about people and deeds said to have really happened in history.
  • Myth A traditional story that plays a central part in a society; some tell how the world took its form.
  • Nursery rhyme An old poem or song meant for young children.
  • Pourquoi story A story that tells how a thing came to be as it is, such as why snakes have no legs.
  • Talking animal story A short story or poem where beasts speak and may live like people.
  • Tall tale A story with unbelievable parts, told like a true account.
  • Trickster tale A story about a clever character who fools others and breaks the rules.

Nonfiction 11

  • Autobiography An account of a person's life, written by that person.
  • Biography A detailed account of a real person's life, written by someone else.
  • Cookbook A collection of recipes and directions for preparing food.
  • Diary Entries arranged by date, each telling what happened that day.
  • Essay Writing in which the author sets out an argument of their own.
  • Joke book Short funny pieces, each ending in a punch line.
  • Memoir A true account from the writer's own memories, usually of one part of a life.
  • Narrative nonfiction A true account, accurate in its facts, that is told with the techniques of a story.
  • Riddle book Questions with a double or hidden meaning, set as puzzles to solve.
  • Science book How the natural world works, explained for readers who are not scientists.
  • Travel book Writing about journeys and places: guide books, nature writing, memoirs of trips.

Poems, plays and pictures 8

  • Anthology A collection of poems, stories or other pieces chosen by a compiler.
  • Comic book A publication of stories told in panels of pictures, with speech in word balloons.
  • Graphic novel A book-length work told in comics, complete in one volume.
  • Manga Comics or graphic novels that come from Japan.
  • Novel in verse A book-length story told in poems instead of paragraphs.
  • Picture book Pictures and words tell the story together, most often for young children.
  • Play A story written as lines for actors to speak, meant to be performed.
  • Poetry Writing that uses the sound and rhythm of language to carry meaning beyond the plain sense of the words.

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