Graphic novels are booming in popularity. It's changing children's relationship with books - Fast Company

Whenever we have a free afternoon, my nine-year-old and I visit our favorite bookshop. By now, we have a routine. Ella makes a beeline to the graphic novels.

Her favorite books-such as Smile, Roller Girl, and The New Girl-are part of a new genre of graphic novels that has emerged over the past decade-and-a-half specifically targeted at eight-12-year-olds. The books' illustrations are colorful and fun, but the stories tackle serious issues: Mending broken relationships; confronting social anxiety; dealing with siblings and parents.

Unlike prose, which takes her days to read, Ella will binge these graphic novels in less than an hour. But she'll come back again and again to the ones she loves, as if they're guidebooks for navigating life's tricky situations. Still, at this pace, we need a constant stream of them. Fortunately for her, we're in a golden age of graphic novels.