With the Light 3

I’m still amazed by how thoroughly enjoyable this series is. It definitely shows its format (it repeats itself quite liberally as a result of being run in… a monthly (?) magazine), and it really does read more like a textbook on autism than anything else, but you can’t help but be sucked in when Hikaru looks as constantly happy as he does, and when people finally overcome whatever obstacle they were working on.

There were two big events in this volume. One was that Hikaru’s mom almost loses her part-time job as a result of her kids getting chicken pox, and the other was that Hikaru took a 4-day trip with his grade, which took up most of the second half of the volume.

The chicken pox story was of the type where Hikaru’s mom starts getting frustrated and losing patience with people. Everyone she can contact about helping Hikaru home from school while she stays with her ill daughter is unavailable, and her (very young) daughter cries and is confused when she is left alone for around 8 minutes while Hikaru is walked to school. Hikaru’s teacher doesn’t understand, and the mother’s employer doesn’t understand why she can’t drop off her completed work and leave her daughter. Then Hikaru catches chicken pox and her daughter need to be helped to and from school. You see where this goes.

The school trip was actually really, really enjoyable. Not too much goes wrong, and Hikaru’s absolute joy at doing so many new things comes across well. It’s also really nice to see all the other children interact with him and consider him so well. There’s also a child who is some sort of celebrity that seems to be in the same circle as Hikaru and his friends, and some of the considerations that need to be taken around him are discussed in depth. There’s a few other little things about the other students that are taken into consideration, too. They all enjoy themselves, plus there’s cute things like pony rides and dolphins. How can you resist?

I’m sort of glad this only comes out periodically, because I don’t think it would be nearly as enjoyable if it came any more frequently. But my bi-annual dose of cute kids really hits the spot, and it also does an admirable job of teaching me about autism. I hope it’s getting to the right audience… it really is written with people who are around the condition in mind, not me as a fan of comics. That I like it too is probably just a bonus.