I am wondering if the Left Behind for kids would work?

[251mellabelle]

I have three middle school boys (they don't love reading) that will read but without a full heart. I have the set of Left Behind <The Kids>. I also have The Dark Hills Divide (The Land of Elyon trilogy) which I am guessing is Christian fantasy/adventure. I am new to this program and do not even distinguish the genres myself very clearly. Fantasy looks a bit like Adventure and I was wondering if Left Behind is "realistic fiction" or fantasy? Googling isn't working for me this evening so I thought I would come to the board for reassurance. I don't have the handy dandy 5.oo list and am having to figure all of this out myself.
1. What genre is Left Behind? Should it be used?
2. Has anyone read The Land of Elyon? I think it could be fantasy OR Adventure, really. My BIG QUESTION: How can you tell if a fantasy is Christian friendly? I've heard that The Lord of the Rings is O.K. but I can't stand it. I can see how Narnia is aligned.
Thanks for any of your time.

[holyhart]

If you go to bookwizard.scholastic (dot com), you can enter the title of your book. It will bring up a list of books that match your search, click on the right title. It will give more info about the book in question including genre, reading level etc.

Also here is a list of definitions that may help you in determining the genre of books.

Humor
The genre Humour incorporates texts that are funny or humourous.
In today's publishing, however, the humor genre is a relatively minor
one, and the books tend to fall under other genres, as well. Humor
is subjective.

Non-Fiction
All of the information in a non-fiction book is based on the known true
facts. Nothing can be made up. Non-fiction books include how-to
books, science books, history books, biographies, autobiographies
and much more. Non-fiction books can be about any subject.


Adventure
The adventure genre, in the context of a narrative, is typically applied
to works in which the protagonist or other major characters are
consistently placed in dangerous situations, and a fictional character
who lives by their wits and their skills is often called an adventurer.

Biography
A biography is the story of a real person's life, written or told by
another person. Biographies may be located in a section of their own
in some libraries and may be labeled B for biography or use the Dewy
Decimal System Classification number of 92 and then are listed in
alphabetical order by who the book is about. Biographies of 2 or more
people in the same book use the Dewey Classification number of 920.
Other libraries prefer to place biographies in the Dewey Decimal
Classification according to the subject of what the person did -- for
example biographies of artists would be located in the art section,
biographies of sports stars in the sports section. Ask your librarian for
help if you can't find the biographies in your library.

**sub-catagory
Autobiography

An autobiography is the story of a real person's life, written or told by
that person. Autobiographies are found in the same place as the
biographies in the library. See biographies for the different places you
might find autobiographies in your library and then check with your
librarian if you can't find them in your library.

Fiction

Fictional stories may be based on actual events or people or may be
based entirely on the author's imagination, but fictional stories all
contain elements that are made-up or created by the author.

Realistic Fiction

Fictional stories that take place in modern time, right here and now.
The characters are involved in events that could really happen.

Mystery/Suspense

Fictional stories, usually realistic, about a mysterious event which is
not explained or a crime that is not solved until the end of the story to
keep the reader in suspense.


Fantasy

Fiction that contains elements that are NOT realistic, such as talking
animals, magical powers, etc. Make-believe is what this genre is all
about.



Historical Fiction

Stories which take place in a particular time period in the past. Often
the basic setting is real, but the characters are fictional.

Folk Tales, Tall Tales, and Fairy Tales

Folk tales are stories with no known creator. They were originally
passed down from one generation to another by word of mouth. The
authors on folk tale books today are retelling these stories. Although,
folk tales are sometimes based on real historical figures, there are
fictional elements to the story. Tall tales are generally folk tales in
which the main character is bigger than life in some way -- examples
would be Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, Swamp Angel, etc. Fairy tales
were often created to teach children behavior in an entertaining way.
Folk tales, tall tales, and fairy tales are found in most libraries in the
non-fiction section with a Dewey Decimal Classification of 398. Some
libraries place picture book versions of folk tales in the easy book
section. Check with your librarian.

Hope this helps!