AbstractThe purpose of this study is categorizing realistic stories as a literary genre in Iranian children’s books through 2000 – 2008 based on standard comparative table. A checklist was designed as a mean of registering information of every book. Findings showed that in 633 Iranian children’s books, 153 books (24.2%) are realistic stories. Considering seven standard sub-genres for realistic stories demonstrated that 11 books (7.2%) are in realistic children’s fiction, 68 books (44.4%) are in stories of children life and their difficulties story, 6 books (3.9%) are in animal realism, 41 books (26.8%) are in adventure story genre, 12 books (7.8%) are in historical fiction, 15 books (9.4%) are in humorous story genre and only 1 book (0.6%) is in romantic story. The results show that realistic stories, as a literary genre, are not considered as an important one in Iranian children’s literature.
Keywords: Literary genre; literary realism genre; literary realism sub-genres; children’s book; Iran, children’s literature