Karl Beckstrand, bilingual author, hopes to inspire love of reading in children

As a child, Midvale resident Karl Beckstrand hated writing. He also hated all those little sounds that scare most children at night -- which gave him his inspiration for “Sounds in the House.”

One day, during his third grade year, Beckstrand was forced to stay home sick. His grandmother gave him the chapter book “Bicycles North -- A Mystery on Wheels” by Rita Richie.

“I realized a well-told story can transport a person to new worlds,” he said.

Beckstrand continued to be inspired by authors like Shel Silverstein and Alice and Martin Provensen, who made him feel like maybe writing wasn’t so awful after all.

Beckstrand drew inspiration from personal experience. He lives to share his ideas with as many people as possible. He hopes to send the greatest message through his children stories. Beckstrand also tries to make his stories enjoyable for all ages.

Beckstrand wanted to get stories out there for children to enjoy. In 2004, Beckstrands’s first book was about to be published when his publisher suddenly died of an illness. Because of this, Beckstrand was forced to take charge of his own publishing and that year “Sounds in the House” was self-published.

His book was released again this year in Spanish. Being fluent in both English and Spanish, he wanted to make sure his stories could get out to as many children as possible.

Beckstrand has been inspired to write stories for adults as well, but he will never let those children’s stories go. Eight other picture books are in the process of being illustrated and he hopes to release them soon. Some of his newer titles include “The Christmas House,” “Muffy and Valor,” and “Zounds Ups and Downs.”

At the beginning of the year, Karl Beckstrand will release his book “Crumbs on the Stairs.”