I love finding picture books that help develop children’s thinking. Here is a great find to add to any parent’s read aloud library. How To Save The Dragon is a delightful picture book that helps teach impulse control for children. Through character-based explanations on how the brain works, it guides the young reader through an adventure through the brain with two friends, a dragon and elephant. I got a chance to interview the author of this book, Madeleine Matthews. She shared her childhood memories, favorite authors, and what she has in store for future writing projects.

• Who was your favorite author and how did they influence you?

Madeleine Matthews: My favorite author is Daniel J. Siegel. I absolutely love his approach to discipline as teaching & love how he sheds some light on the most challenging moments in our lives as parents by explaining the biological perspective.

His work was an inspiration for me. I thought that all parents and children should benefit from knowing the science of brain integration and the brain dynamic during a tantrum. This is why, in my book, I created a story line to illustrate a tantrum as an alarm, and also the two characters to explain the wonderful internal resources available for each of us & the power of focusing conscious awareness to activate and grow the more evolved structures in our brains.

• What is your favorite memory of reading as a child?

Madeleine Matthews: My favorite memory is a feeling of immersion actually, in the summer break at my grandparents’ place, in rainy days when we couldn’t play outside, and I relished Alexandre Dumas books.

• Do you have a writing routine? Share what works for you.

Madeleine Matthews: Writing routine for me is about realizing that internal struggle, where you’re kind of avoiding to actually sit down and write. So my routine involves a beautiful notebook, and a pencil & for the most part it is a sort of dialog I have with myself: “Just put pen to paper, scribble at first even, and then there’ll be plenty of time to rework & re-word until I am happy with the outcome.”

• What subjects would you like to write about in future projects?

Madeleine Matthews: In my future projects, I would love to create stories that incorporate more concepts that convey bite size science that works in the area of social emotional development & building executive functioning.

• What is writing to you in one sentence?

Madeleine Matthews: Writing to me is creative freedom, and the beauty of encapsulating messages & meaning.

How To Save The Dragon is a helpful picture book to describe how a child’s brain works and to help introduce them to impulse control. Introducing the concept of a temper tantrum in the form of a story adventure, the young reader is guided to understand how to start their own impulse control through the help of lovable characters. This is a great addition for every parenting library.

This book is available at Amazon and is a Kindle Unlimited title.

Follow the author Madeleine Matthews at Instagram.