The second novel of the Hidamari Sketch series features three main stories, 1) baking sweet potatoes using fallen leaves, 2) studying for the midterm, and 3) an intern teacher. All of them are closely related to "school life" as the title suggests.
Before going into the stories, I want to mention that illustration inserts in this book are all printed in semi-glossy color. However, they are merely illustrations of each regular characters and have nothing to do with the stories, so I'm not so sure if this can be considered a "light novel." But then, there is no official definition of "light novel," so I guess it doesn't matter.
All stories are sweet (maybe even literally for the sweet potato chapter) and warm, which is expected of the series. However, this may be its Achilles heel. There're no real ups and downs, so as they say, it's "yamanashi." As easy as it is to read, it fails to leave a lasting impression. I guess there's really no way around it for this series.
