Ume Aoki

A very touching and enjoyable volume. I'm very sad to see Hiro and Sae finally moving on (not permanently, of course) but it was very nicely portrayed, and the interactions with the new character Matsuri were fun, as was the slow maturing of Miya and Yuno.

Another fun, light-hearted series of day-to-day adventures.

More gentle, fun adventures of the art school girls, now joined by two new first-years. I found Nazuna a bit of a limp character - obviously she's meant to be helpless and ineffectual, but she also didn't feel very strong narratively. But Nori has some definite presence, and the others are fun as ever.

A fun, lighthearted book with more adventures of the Hidamari crew. I love the gentleness and simplicity of the everyday situations they deal with, which forms a pleasing contrast with the dramatic fare of most books. But these ordinary trials and concerns are overwhelmingly important to the characters, and Aoki evokes this well. They are charming and lively stories, and remind me of being at school, even though I wasn't in Japan.