He won the 1989 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration, recognizing Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman.
His illustrations in Where the Buffaloes Begin by Olaf Baker (1982) and The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant (1986) earned those titles the designation of Caldecott Honor books.
His father, an art editor for a major magazine, brought home periodicals that gave Stephen early artistic inspiration.
His first picture book was published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1973: A Nutty Business by Ida Chittum, featuring a "war" between squirrels and a farmer.
[2] That same year he illustrated The Search (Harper & Row, 1973), a juvenile biography of Leo Tolstoy by Sara Newton Carroll.