Book Review of Today We’ll Be Eaten
The Children’s Book Review
Today We’ll Be Eaten
Written and illustrated by Alan Barillaro
Ages: 4-8 | 48 Pages
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books (2026) | ISBN: 979-8-217-00436-2
What to Expect: Friendship, courage, facing fears, living in the moment, and nature.
Today We’ll Be Eaten by Alan Barillaro is a tender and warmhearted picture book debut about two small creatures who face down their worst fears only to discover that what comes next is nothing they could have imagined.
Ladybug and Dragonfly get caught in a storm and quickly find themselves floating upside down in a stream. With waterlogged wings, they stare helplessly into the sky above, convinced of one thing: today is the day they’ll be eaten. As the pair brace for the worst, the hours begin to unfold in unexpected ways, and by morning, the certainty they clung to has softened, surprising friendships have bloomed, and the pair have stumbled into something far better than the fate they feared.
Barillaro writes with a quiet restraint that belies the depth of what he’s exploring. The humor (that begins with the title) is delightful—it lands because it grows from such genuine, relatable worry that anyone who has ever feared the worst (or knows someone who often fears the worst) will recognize. Chuckle-worthy dialogue between the characters carries the rhythm of a long friendship—shared dread and small comforts alike. There’s real craft in how Barillaro lets dread and delight coexist on the page, offering a “live in the moment” theme that threads through the story for young readers open to receiving it.
The pencil-and-watercolor illustrations, finished digitally, carry the unmistakable fingerprint of an Academy Award–winning animator. Barillaro brings a cinematic eye to every spread, with expressive character work that recalls his animator pedigree—a bend in Dragonfly’s long abdomen or a tilt of Ladybug’s wings communicates entire emotional shifts. His palette leans into the soft, washed light of a long day stretching toward evening, and his compositions skillfully play with scale to remind us just how vast the world looks when you’re very small and floating belly-up on a river.
Sure to resonate most with readers who appreciate quiet, character-driven stories (and with the adults in their lives who know exactly how it feels to brace for the worst), Today We’ll Be Eaten is a picture book that settles over you at the end like a warm hug and leaves you smiling.
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About the Author
Alan Barillaro is an Academy Award-winning director, writer, and animator who has spent over 25 years at Pixar Animation Studios, bringing beloved characters to life. His directorial debut, the animated short Piper, won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 2017. Alan has contributed his animation talents to numerous Pixar classics and now brings his gift for visual storytelling to children’s literature with his debut middle-grade novel, Bunns Rabbit.
To learn more, visit alanbarillaro.com.
