‘Bones or No Bones’ Creator Jonathan Graziano Reveals How New Pug Milton Taught Him Bravery

I was inspired to write my new book, Milton Makes a Move, based on an interaction I had with my dear friend Cailin in Terminal 5 of JFK while waiting to board a flight to Los Angeles. Typically, my interactions with Cailin are fun and even occasionally whimsical (she once spur-of-the-moment invited me to a holiday party in the basement of a Swedish Church in Midtown East. There was a small market and the food was fabulous, as was the wine. As the Swedes would say, God Jul!)

This particular interaction, however, found me in a cold sweat, panicked among a sea of travelers all seemingly excited to do something I couldn’t rationalize: they all wanted to get on the plane.

I am, among my many wonders, a dreadful flier. I can’t help myself; it terrifies me. Flying requires a great deal of trust, you see. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I staunchly believe pilots aren’t qualified (all pilots require hundreds of hours of flight time and training before flying commercial), and airplane engineers don’t take their jobs seriously (every plane I’ve ever been on has taken off, flown, and landed safely). I understand none of these takes are rational, but since when does that matter when it comes to fear?

The main problem is there are a good deal of people I love in Los Angeles. I’ve noticed my relationships with these people grow when I visit, so the incentive to do so is evident despite my debilitating fear. So there I stood, in line to board, and I began to feel that familiar “I’m nauseous, and also I’m going to die” feeling. My breathing began to pick up, then the spinning started. I looked at Cailin, my face pale and sweaty, and told her I wasn’t sure how I was going to get on this plane. I was so scared of all the things that could happen because of my surely inept pilot and the obviously clueless engineers.

Cailin looked at me with empathy and a bit of confusion. I didn’t like the confusion. It made me feel like there was a chance I was being irrational. She simply said something along the lines of, “Jonathan, you can absolutely leave if you have to. But what if you were brave and just did it anyway?” I can’t remember her exact wording because of the antihistamines (did I mention the antihistamines? I also suffer from motion sickness. I have strengths, I promise), but for some reason, at the ripe old age of 34, I finally learned what bravery was. It was being scared and doing the thing anyway.

Meeting Milton

Cut to my newly adopted geriatric Pug, Milton, who was rescued from a hoarding house halfway across the world. He was taken in, rehabilitated, and flown 17 hours across the world in a very small crate (it was appropriately sized for a dog, but unacceptable for Milton). When the man from the rescue organization opened Milton’s crate, I found him curled in the back, shaking. Few things in this world activate my caretaker instincts like a pug who needs comforting, so I sat outside his crate and waited with him until he was ready to come out. He slowly did so after being cajoled by some treats, and he eventually let me scoop him up to bring him home.

He slept on my lap the whole way.

After a few days of having Milton in my home, I had the privilege of watching him go from a scared, anxious pug into a perfect, happy lump who just wanted to snooze. I spent some of that time thinking about what his journey had been like coming to live with me and how I’d never know all the details. All I’d know for certain is that he was a very, very brave pug. More brave than maybe I could be, perhaps. To my knowledge, he was sober the entire flight! I could never.

Writing Milton Makes a Move

Cailin’s advice and Milton’s hardened spirit both inspired me to write a story about why it’s okay to be scared, but it’s important to know it’s also okay to be brave. It is my sincere hope that a parent or guardian reading Milton Makes a Move to their child will take as much away from it as their kid does.

I remember how scary being a kid was at times, and as an adult now, I know how scary things can continue to be. Moving to a new house. Starting at a new school. Meeting new people at camp. I don’t think we give enough credit to how brave everyone has to be every single day to navigate so much that is thrown at us on a daily basis, and this story hopefully helps to illustrate just how much more life you can live and how much more of yourself you can be when you try to be a little brave.

Milton Makes a Move is available now from Margaret K. McElderry Books.