Alex Brychta (born January 1956) is a British illustrator. He has collaborated with

Roderick Hunt Roderick James Hunt is a British children's author. His most famous series of stories is ''The Magic Key'', which was first written as a part of the Oxford Reading Tree in 1985 illustrated by Alex Brychta MBE. There were originally 30 stori ...

MBE on a series of children books for the Oxford Reading Tree, ''

The Magic Key ''The Magic Key'' is a British educational animated television series based on the "Biff, Chip and Kipper" stories from the Oxford Reading Tree published by Oxford University Press, originally written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex ...

'', which had an animated spin-off. There were 30 books in the first Oxford Reading Tree pack, and there are now over 400 total. They are used by over 80% of British

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s to help children learn to read, as well as in schools in more than 120 other countries. Brychta followed in his parents' footsteps, and aged 10, his drawings were shown to the Lord Mayor of Hamburg in a public exhibition. In 1968, however, his family moved to England, where he had his first book published in 1972. In addition to the Oxford Reading Tree, Brychta is also the illustrator of ''Read with Biff, Chip and Kipper'' (formerly ''Read at Home''), the ''Wolf Hill'' series and the ''Time Chronicles'' series. He has also written and illustrated several children's books for J M Dent, Franklin Watts, and Oxford University Press. Brychta was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2012 New Year Honours 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

for services to children's literature. Brychta now lives in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

with his wife, Dina, with whom he has two children, Kelly Brychta and Dylan Brychta.

References

Living people 1956 births English illustrators Members of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-illustrator-stub

See also

References