Author & Illustrator Interviews: Milton Makes a Move by Jonathan Graziano, with art by Dan Tavis

August is National Dog Month, and we are leaning in. This week on BookCrushin we are celebrating all things dog, and we could not think of a better way to celebrate than with Jonathan Graziano and illustrator Dan Tavis, the team behind Milton Makes a Move, out August 4th. If you know Jonathan from TikTok, you already know Noodle and you probably already know Milton. This is the book that tells his story. Check out our interviews below and grab Milton Makes a Move, out next week!

Milton Makes a Move (Noodle and Jonathan)

by Jonathan Graziano, Dan Tavis
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
on August 4, 2026
Genres: Kids, Picture Book, Humor
Bookshop
Goodreads

From Jonathan Graziano, the creator of the viral “Bones or No Bones” TikTok videos and the instant #1 New York Times bestselling Noodle and the No Bones Day, comes a charming and heartfelt picture book following Milton the pug, Jonathan’s newly adopted dog, as he makes a brave move to his forever home!

Milton is a curious little pug who loves adventure—especially when it involves snacks, stinky smells, and playing with his dog friends. He’s heard that some dogs go off to live with forever families… but that kind of adventure feels a little too big for Milton.

So when Milton finds out he’s moving to a new home of his own, he packs his tiny suitcase (stuffed toy included) and does his best to be brave. He's surprised to find that his new human friend, Jonathan, seems nervous too! But as Milton settles into his new home, he and Jonathan will learn that being brave means giving new things, and new friends, a chance.

Interview with Jonathan Graziano

Noodle gave people language for low energy days and built an enormous community around that. Milton’s story is about being brave enough to try something new. What made you want to tell a story about courage and change specifically, and how did Milton’s own journey from Korea to New York inspire that?

I wanted to tell a story that kids and adults could both take something away from. Change is hard no matter what age you are, and an act of bravery—big or small— is something that should be celebrated every time. Milton went through a lot of change very quickly before he came to live with me, and the way he gone from an anxious pug who wouldn’t stop shaking to a dog I have to strategize around getting off the couch is so inspiring to me. This story and its illustrations will hopefully convey all of this to whomever reads the book.

You are passionate about senior dog adoption and fostering and this book is clearly part of that advocacy. What do you want someone who has never considered a senior pet to walk away thinking after reading this?

Older pets come pre-programmed with their own personalities! All dogs need homes regardless of age, but adopting an older pet and watching them settle into their comfortable life is really something. Usually older dogs are up for adoption because they are not wanted for one reason or another, which makes it all the more sweet.

You have 4.1 million TikTok followers who feel like they know Milton already from your videos. What is something about him that your audience probably does not know yet?

I don’t think they know how much he hates being outside. He loves a walk don’t get me wrong, but the idea of bringing him out to sit on the deck with me is *a heinous crime* against him. But it’s not just that he doesn’t want to sit outside, he doesn’t want anyone to sit outside so he’ll sit at the screen door and do his best to woo us indoors. It works often.

Interview with Dan Tavis

Milton is curious and brave but also nervous, which is a lot of emotional complexity to put on a pug’s face. What was the process of finding his visual personality and getting his expressions right?

When drawing a special pug like Milton it’s incredibly important to me that I’m capturing his unique personality! I do that by looking at a bunch of references and drawing him many times over until I feel like I’m nailing his big, beautiful eyes, and perfectly wrinkled face. 

You have now illustrated three of Jonathan’s dog books. How did your approach to Milton differ from Noodle, and did anything about this story change how you worked? Do you have a folder dedicated to photos of them both? 

I don’t think my approach differed much from my previous pug books, but a small change I made was to smooth out my linework and add more color to each spread. For these books, I’m working digitally on an iPad, but I come from a watercolor and ink background, so I try my best to capture that traditional look the best I can. And yes, I do have a folder filled with both Milton and Noodle pictures! Using reference, especially in the beginning stages of a book, is incredibly important to my workflow.

Picture books do a lot of their emotional work through what is in the illustrations rather than the text. Is there anything in Milton Makes a Move that you hid in the art that you hope readers notice but that never gets said out loud?

With picture books, I love to add humorous details that text doesn’t touch on! One of those elements is the little 4-legged spider/sprite character I have been hiding in our books since the first Noodle story. The hidden background character aspect is inspired by the great Mercer Mayers’ Little Critter books. He would add a little cricket and spider throughout his stories, which is something I loved to look for when reading his books as a kid! And the character design for the spider is based on my love for Studio Ghibli films. In the film Spirited Away, there’s a bunch of cute, little soot sprites that run around and pick up coal to heat the furnaces.

Another addition I made can be seen in the first spread. There’s a dog growling at a cat that’s confidently walking across a thin fence. That was my family’s dog, Coco, and my family’s cat, Tigger, who both passed away but are remembered through my art! 

Lastly, there’s a couple of other hidden characters throughout like Jon’s cat Nutmeg and Chia creeping on the birds from their window perch, a racoon hiding from Milton in the garbage can, and a little alien creature on the last spread (he’s not easy to find!).