Michaela Goade won the Caldecott Medal for her illustrations in the children’s book “We Are Water Protectors,” written by Carole Lindstrom.

Author–illustrator Vashti Harrison happened to be in Miami to celebrate her father’s 89th birthday when—at 9:30 p.m., while sorting laundry—she received the news of her Caldecott win.

A two-time Caldecott Medal winner, she brought multiculturalism to children’s literature by evoking her Armenian heritage. By Clay Risen Nonny Hogrogian, an illustrator who mined her Armenian ...