The Inner Child

“Did you know that all adults have a child inside them??” the story asks before beginning to explain and explore these inner-childs with hilarious, merciless commentary. “Adults hide their inner child by pretending to be busy and stressed all the time,” the narrator cuttingly observes, as a man and woman are shown exasperated at their laptops. “Or when they want a new toy . . . usually they call it a gadget . . .” he remarks as a man and woman peer through a store window at shiny electronics displayed inside. It is their inner child, he continues, that makes adults look so silly when they dance, use baby talk when they’re in love, and most importantly, still have “so much fun!” Blackshaw depicts each inner child as a waist-height, black-and-white individual inside each adult, impressively matching a child-like personality and style to the adult versions. In one disturbingly insightful scene, an adult boss is shown yelling at an employee while the narrator says, “Nasty adults . . . have a nasty child inside”; the boss’s inner child is angrily shaking his fist while a stench emanates from his diaper. It’s a remarkably successful attempt to reduce the complexities of adulthood to humorously fit—in both length and concept—in the pages of a simple picture book.