The story of Hikaru Azuma and his family continues in the fourth installment of the With The Light: Raising An Autistic Child manga series. As Hikaru enters the later elementary school years, his family begins looking for more ways to increase his independence and to help him get ready to become a working adult. Initially the family's difficulties are compounded by Masato's transfer to a dead end job in a hard to reach location. However, the family perseveres and Masato is eventually transferred back because of some ideas that stem from their search into options for Hikaru's future.
Impression: I enjoyed this new volume in Hikaru's journey, partly because we're at the stage in my house where we need to start looking into my son's future and he is expressing a desire to go to work. But the volume also gave the reader a wider look into the lives of Hikaru's friends, and while not all the revelations were pleasant, it was nice to see beyond the family and into other character's lives. There was also some setting up for what I expect to be issues in future volumes: Hikaru's current teacher is getting ready to retire and it will be interesting to see if she retires first or Hikaru moves to a new school first. Either will provide challenges for the family, but having the teacher retire first and then Hikaru being promoted will, if Hikaru is typical, be more challenging as autistic children have difficulty with changes and this would be two changes practically one on top of the other. In general, this book is a bit of a lull for Hikaru as the greater stress is on his family and friends. And this too is a part of the autism puzzle.
I still highly recommend the series to anyone curious about autism and its affect on families. Readers just need to keep in mind the cultural differences. With the Light is based in Japan, and much of what is done there is either not done here or done differently, and many of the difficulties the book shows being experienced by families with autistic children in Japan are not experienced here. But with those things in mind, the series is an excellent window into the lives of families dealing with autism.
Unless otherwise noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by me.
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