Paige Pedroli Receives National Recognition through the NYC BIG BOOK AWARD®!
2025 NYC Big Book Award Winner
Author Paige Pedroli
"Welcome to the NIC Zoo" by Paige Pedroli
2025 NYC Big Book Award winner
The competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, designers, booksellers, librarians and professional copywriters. Winners and distinguished favorites are based on overall excellence.
"Welcome to the NIC-Zoo" is a beautifully crafted children’s board book that gently opens the door to the world of neonatal intensive care through the gentle rhymes, and a cast of lovable animal characters. Each page introduces relatable zoo babies who, just like some newborns, need a little extra time and care in the “NICU-Zoo” before heading home. The lyrical prose soothes and reassures, making it especially meaningful for parents in the NICU reading to their babies as well as older siblings at home. With adorable artwork and tone that’s both encouraging and empathetic, the NIC-Zoo is more than just a story-it’s a comforting companion during a sensitive time for families.
Neonatal Intensive Care Units provide critical, often life-saving, care to over 300,000 infants every year. Pedroli's hope is to reach as many of these NICU families through this book. Reading out loud is the best way to bond and connect with one's baby, which can help improve brain development, cognitive skills and emotional well-being. Having experienced with her own daughters NICU journeys, Pedroli understands how important it is for NICU families to have a book like "Welcome to the NIC-Zoo." This book is a message of hope, and reminds us all that every baby is a miracle!
NYC Big Book Award received book submissions worldwide. Journalists, well established authors, small and large press, and first time indie authors participated in record numbers. Entries this year were received from the United States as well as countries such as Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Cities represented among the entries were Chicago, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Quebec, Rome, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, and Victoria.
Publishers included Berrett-Koehler; Brown Books Kids; Central Avenue / Simon & Schuster; Forbes Books; New Harbinger Publications; New York University Press; Old Stone Press; Oxford University Press; Pegasus Books; She Writes Press; University of Massachusetts Press to name a few.
Winners included "What is My Legacy?" by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger; "Mikhail Gorbachev - How he changed our lives" by Bettina Schaefer; Berrett-Koehler's "From Founder to Future: A Business Roadmap to Impact, Longevity, and Employee Ownership" by John Abrams; The Cooking Lab's "Modernist Bread at Home" by Nathan Myhrvold; and "Wild Fox Ridge" by Xue Mo to name some key titles on the awarded list.
Paige Pedroli's winning book "Welcome to the NIC-Zoo" will be showcased with other winning books in the 2025 NYC Big Book Announcements in the October issue of Printed Word Reviews magazine.
"With so many quality publishers and authors from around the world participating this year, I’m eager to share these books with a global readership," said awards sponsor Gabby Olczak.
View the 2025 NYC Big Book winners, please visit: https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/2025-winners.
To learn more about Paige Pedroli or "Welcome to the NIC-Zoo," please visit: https://www.nic-zoobook.com/shop/p/nic-zoo-childrens-book.
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About the author in her own words
I am a wife and mother of two beautiful daughters, Penelope and Sydney. I was inspired to write this book after both my daughters ended up in the NICU. The playful title of the book was created by my sister, and I loved the idea of sharing our NICU journey in such a clever way. Writing Welcome to the NIC-Zoo has fulfilled me in a way I didn’t know I needed. I have enjoyed every part of bringing this book to life. It gave me a creative outlet to express the roller coaster of emotions that comes with having your baby in the NICU. Connecting with many other NICU families and hearing their NICU stories validated my own feelings of trauma and helped me to heal. My hope is for this book to bring that same comfort to as many NICU families as possible!
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NYC Big Book Award is announced every fall. NYC Big Book Award is open to all authors, publishers, and illustrators, and includes submissions from the big five publishers: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.
Join us for the Independent Press Award, deadlines every December and announced every spring, is open to independent authors and publishers. Visit: https://www.independentpressaward.com/2025winners.
Join us at the Awards Dinner on April 24th to celebrate the recipients of both programs as they receive their awards on stage. The dinner is part of the BookCAMP event, a publishing industry conference held in the New York metro area, April 24-25, 2026, https://www.independentpressaward.com/ipabookcamp.
Gabby Olczak
NYC Big Book Award
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