As the school year draws to a close, we reflect on this year’s 36 winning schools of the 2024-25 Mathical Collection Development Awards nationwide. Presented by SLMath in partnership with School Library Journal, the collection development awards annually enables up to 36 libraries in K–12 schools with high numbers or percentages of low-income students to receive grants of $850 to purchase titles from the Mathical Prize list.
Since the award started in 2020, a total of 175 U.S. Title I School libraries in 39 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have received Collection Development Awards over six annual grant cycles. For the last three years, these awards have been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Guru Krupa Foundation.
Top of page: students at one of the 36 2024-25 winning schools. Pictured above: Photos submitted by some of last year’s 2023-24 Collection Development schools.
Each year, librarians at winning schools share with us how they have used their newly-purchased Mathical books with students. This year’s stories reflect the ways the influx of math-centered children’s literature fills a need for literacy, math joy, socioemotional learning, and simply, hope in difficult times.
The Guru Krupa Foundation follows a holistic approach to charitable giving, addressing a range of issues from education to basic sustenance, arts & culture, and the environment. In particular, organizations that focus on delivering complementary or supplemental programs for younger children, designed to enhance the learning experience and outcomes, form a core component of many of the Foundation’s initiatives.
Below are a selection of reflections from 2024-25 winning school libraries about the impact of this grant.
From a high school:
One of my high school students was at Read a Latte where we unboxed the Mathical Titles. She instantly put The Probability of Everything on her reading list. Previous to this year, she said she had not completed a book in several years. This year she’s read two already. She told me that she can’t wait to read The Probability of Everything after hearing about it because it sounds like a book she can relate to.
From a PreK-2 school:
I allowed the students to preview the books we received with the Mathical grant, explained they were math themed, and they would take us on adventures involving math, numbers, and counting. This sparked immediate excitement. Students loved the colorful array of books, with the vibrant colors adorned with whimsical characters, intricate number patterns, and imaginative illustrations that blended math concepts and storytelling. The students loved finding the shapes, counting the objects, and discussing which character had more in the story Lia & Luis: Who has More? by Ana Crespo. This new collection has already encouraged students to view math not as a daunting subject but as a source of adventure and discovery.
I plan to introduce students to the math-themed books by combining storytelling with math themed centers. Each week we will feature a selection of the math themed books at each center where we will provide hands-on math activities promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a fun, story-based context.
From a PreK-Grade 6 school:
Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf – As a school, we are focusing on math writing. This is an amazing book to flesh out both story and math writing. This is the perfect book to read to students and talk about the elements of a story. What makes a story interesting? Why are the different parts of a story important? Then have students practice writing out their own stories about the pigs and wolf and include a math problem in their story.
From a Grades 7-12 school:
One of our students was looking for an excuse to utilize the beanbag reading area in the library. As a non-reader, he doesn’t get the chance to hang out there. At 16, he thought he was being snarky by grabbing a picture book from our Mathical book display. As he settled in, I offered to read to him. He reluctantly said yes. As we made our way through Mind-Boggling Numbers, he engaged with the crazy scenarios, eventually dreaming up scenarios for jumping fleas and 737 airplanes.
Our Math Department Chair is planning on using the National Geographic It’s a Numbers Game (Football / Baseball) books as core texts for a Sports and Statistics elective. Using our Mathical Collection Development Grant, we purchased a class set of each title. Another plan in the works is a Girl Genius book club using the fiction titles with a female protagonist (Slay, My Mechanical Romance, Talia’s Codebook for Mathletes).
From a Grades PreK-5 school:
I shared the story One Big Pair of Underwear with a 3rd-grade class and asked them whether it was a good book for kindergarteners or 4th graders. Students were able to identify the patterns and rhyming words in the story.
This discussion sparked deeper engagement as one grade level reviewed a book for their classmates. In the end, the students decided that this book was great for the whole school. One student, who had previously struggled with math, found newfound confidence after reading a Mathical title that presented numbers as an exciting adventure, sparking curiosity and deeper engagement in class. Thank you again for this grant!
From a Grades 6-8 school:
One student really liked the origami art that she created in Art (focusing on art cultures from around the world) and she noticed the book purchased on folding [Folding Tech] and is loving learning about all the different things that fold in nature and how that helps develop building and creating new structures and machines.
Our PE teachers are good about incorporating other curricular areas. They will be using the Sports in Numbers titles [It’s a Numbers Game Football / Baseball] to help students understand just how fast and talented professional athletes are. They will also compare stats today vs. stats in history and discuss how it can be that athletes are getting faster and better over time and work in some other math!
We purchased a small group set of All of the Above and will be reading it with a specific group of at-risk students next year.
From a Grades 6-8 school:
My students have enjoyed learning that math and reading can coexist! Some of the fiction titles have grabbed their attention, and I love seeing my STEM students embrace fiction focused on math!
I plan to utilize the Mathical titles in coordination with our math teachers. We desire to institute reading across the curriculum, but math teachers are often hesitant. I love that our math lead teacher has embraced using these books to promote her curriculum and a love for reading!
From a Grades K-6 school:
The students are loving the books that have arrived [so far]. They were shocked when I told them they could learn about math by reading the stories. We read Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus in with my kindergarten students then used LEGO building bricks to create buildings like in the book. They had to count up all of the bricks they used. They loved the story connection to the math.
The 6th grade students will be using the book Pass Go & Collect $200 as a lead-in to their STEM board game creation activity later in the year. Students will be creating board games that must have a mathematical component, for example, counting money, adding steps or dice. The game will be built with the STEM supplies and pieces will be created using the CAD program and 3-D printer. Students will use precise measurements to create game pieces that fit on their board and into their game theme.
From a Grades 9-12 school:
Several students were very intrigued by My Mechanical Romance and The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost Kiss. They thought I had put them on the wrong display since they didn’t look like “mathical” books. The Woman All Spies Fear has also already been checked out, and I just put up the display yesterday.
From a Grades PreK-2 school:
The kids loved the surprise at the end of How Many Jelly Beans?, opening up to see the giant page with all the tiny jellybeans.
Afterwards the kids got to look at containers of jelly beans of different sizes and estimate how many were in there and how the size of the jelly beans can change how many are in the same size container.
I have meetings scheduled with our K and 1st teachers to share the book collection with them and met last week with 2nd grade teachers, who were very receptive to the new collection and the resources I gathered for them! I have to say the Mathical website is a wonderful resource and I am excited to share it and the books with all our teachers. As I mentioned in our grant proposal I’ve added the Mathical awards information in a tag in our library catalog so the collection can easily be searched and found. I created a slideshow for parents and teachers as well, the link for which is on a sticker in the front of every book in the collection. Later this week we will be sharing the book You Rule! and will be measuring items with books, markers, items that are not a ruler and comparing numbers. And then for We Are One we will be making groups of things and doing a scavenger hunt of pairs/groups of objects. We are VERY excited to be able to support math literacy explicitly in the library!
From a Grades 7-12 school:
In our Library 7 class, students recently completed a “book tasting” activity with our recently acquired Mathical titles. Many students were surprised at how engaging and fun the stories were. They said, “I thought this book was going to just be about math…” Many students ended up checking out titles that they may not have without participation in the book tasting activity.
From a Grades K-8 school:
There is a 3rd grade boy who has been requesting “hard math books” for almost a year. When we got the box of books, he jumped up and down for joy. He is diving into the math mystery and comics. I also have a K student who was fascinated by Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries. The folding papers, pop-ups, mazes, optical illusions and riddles are so fun and engaging for this emerging reader. It’s a book that would be captivating for children from K through 5 because it can be appreciated on so many levels.
From a Grades PreK-5 school:
I had displayed all of the Mathical Grant books on a table. The students were excited to see them and asked if they could be checked out. When I said yes, the students erupted in cheers! They were so excited to be able to borrow and read the new books.
From a Grades PreK-6 school:
Our students have found great joy in the Mathical titles we were able to receive with the grant. One example is a second grader who said, “I can’t believe reading about math can be so fun.” He was reading 100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli. Another great example of how our Mathical grant titles are being used is through collaboration with our 8th grade math teacher at the Junior High. She has assigned her students the task of choosing a picture book to help teach a math lesson to a younger class at our school.
Our elementary school has an ELA program already in place for our elementary teachers to use with picture books included. However, I have been spreading the word on our new additions, and so many teachers and students are excited to use these as supplemental resources to our mandated programs already in place.
I appreciate the donors and organizations who made this happen. For a small, lower-socioeconomic school like ours, it makes a big difference having resources like this provided to improve my book collection in a needed area of math. Thank you!
From a Grades 1-6 school:
Our students were very excited about interacting with the titles. One of the 6th grade groups got caught up in The Number Devil and searched through the chapters for tricks with numbers. Another group was astounded by the concept of compound interest in One Grain of Rice. This group tried to prove that choosing a large number was a better option than starting with 1 grain of rice and doubling it every day for thirty days.
From a Grades K-5 school:
The books about the numbers of football [It’s a Numbers Game! Football] are absolutely incredible and I cannot keep them on the shelves—they have a holds list a mile long, as my older sports-minded kiddos, some of whom are usually very reluctant readers, are DESPERATE to get their hands on these titles!!! I also have a group of fourth grade girls who all are friends but who usually can’t bond over books because I don’t have a ton of the same titles in multiple languages, but now I have Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass in English, Spanish, AND Portuguese, so they are all reading it together and it is so cool to see them chat!!
From a Grades 9-12 school:
I’m having students share a review of the book they read, and one of my students who mainly checks out manga checked out one of the books and wrote this: “I would give the book a 3 outta 5 because I’m not the biggest fan of math. But this book actually taught me a lot, and made me enjoy it a bit. Mainly cause I’m learning about math and not doing it for a grade. I didn’t have to memorize anything or get graded it was for fun and that’s what reading is about.”
I loved to hear this from a student!
From a Grades 9-12 school:
After students were told about our new Mathical books and came to the Media Center to check them out the following occurred: One of our students was interested in The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss and was excited to read it due to its cover. She enjoyed reading it. Another student was excited to see Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. She quickly picked it up and began to read it. Several female students gravitated toward Slay and took turns checking it out and reading it. One student was happy to check out A Wrinkle in Time and read it. I heard several students talk about the Hidden Figures book and how they had seen the movie with the same title.
From a Grades K-5 school:
The Mathical titles are often ones about a mathematician whose story can be inspirational mostly because they are stories of how math can be used to invent or push new boundaries. As we read the titles each one leads to new ways of thinking about math and numbers. It’s that thinking and making math fun and interesting that will encourage the next generation of engineers and inventors. It’s not learning the math, though some kids really enjoy that part, but more often it’s the stories of how math was or is used or maybe it’s the challenge of healthy competition. I will be doing lessons using many of the titles we purchased and the goal is to build enthusiasm for math.
From a Grades PreK-5 school:
One of my favorite experiences with our new Mathical collection was joining a math class as they explored Zero the Hero. The students were immediately drawn in by the playful illustrations and Zero’s journey from feeling worthless to discovering his true power. During the read aloud, students eagerly pointed out different math concepts and made connections to their own math learning. They particularly loved the humor in how Zero transforms from being ‘nothing’ to becoming a mathematical superhero who makes other numbers ten times stronger!
The excitement hasn’t stopped there. Each time new Mathical titles arrive on our library shelves, students gather around our display with excitement. I’ve noticed students who typically aren’t interested in math related stories now eagerly checking them out. Just last week, I overheard two students debating who would get to read one of the new titles first – a kind of enthusiasm that shows how these books are successfully bridging the gap between mathematical concepts and engaging storytelling.
We are developing a collaborative initiative to maximize the impact of our Mathical collection within our curriculum. I plan to work closely with our instructional coach and math interventionist to analyze each new title and create an alignment document matching books to specific math standards. Through this process, we’ll identify key instructional opportunities and develop lesson suggestions for each book.
For example, we’ll note which books support concepts like number sense, geometric thinking, or problem-solving strategies. Once we’ve completed this curriculum mapping, I’ll promote selected titles to classroom teachers so they can integrate them into their math instruction. This systematic approach will ensure our new Mathical collection becomes a valuable instructional resource that supports student learning while making mathematical concepts more engaging and accessible through literature.
From a Grades 9-12 school:
The students who looked at the display so far commented on the variety of books and types of books that dealt with math. They were impressed that there was math in not just informative books, but biographies and different types of fiction as well.