Richard Egielski won the 1987 Caldecott Medal for the year's best-illustrated U.S. picture book, recognizing Hey, Al, by Arthur Yorinks.Egielski is married to Denise Saldutti who is also an artist/illustrator and the couple have a son Ian Joseph Egielski. Egielski lives in Milford, New Jersey. He was featured in the October 2011 issue of BookPage. Egielski has altogether illustrated over fifty books that are directed towards children. Eight of those fifty books that he has illustrated, he has also written. He studied at the Parson's School of Design. He also studied the art of picture books with Maurice Sendak. In the year of 1976, Egielski had joined together with the author Arthur Yorinks. Together they were able to create nine various picture books. Those books included the award winning book, Hey Al. Hey Al was awarded the 1987 Caldecott Medal by the American Library Association. Egielski also is known for his illustrations in the popular books known as the Tub People series that was written by Pam Conrad. In the year of 1995, Egielski wrote and illustrated BUZ that was chosen by the New York Times to be one of the top ten best children's books that year for its illustrations. He then illustrated the book Jazper that was also chosen to be a New York Times Best Illustrated Book in 1998. His artwork is gathered, collected, and exhibited in galleries that range from colleges, universities, private collections, public collections, and corporate collections. The places that hold his artwork expand from Los Angeles to New York. Egielski's most recent title is called The End, which is written by David LaRochelle. Richard Egielski currently resides in Mildord, New Jersey with his wife and son. He is Polish American.