Which subject area receives the least amount of attention in your library? The section that isn’t considered as appealing or as much fun as the others—but just may be as attractive and exciting? I bet I know: math books. If math titles are your ugly duckling, I have a solution—a way to free those titles that are as fresh and as interesting and as alive as the latest sports result—to flock with the other swans. This past spring an award worthy of your attention was announced: Mathical Books for Kids from Tots to Teens.

A bit of background: the prize evolved from an alliance between Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), a nonprofit that focuses on mathematical research and works to deepen appreciation of mathematics across all age levels, and the Children’s Book Council (CBC). The CBC works with other organizations, such as the National Council of Social Studies and the National Science Teachers Association, to produce annual lists of “notable” trade books in those fields. But Mathical is different. As David Eisenbud, director of MSRI, explained, the organization wanted to select and honor exceptional individual books, which makes the award sound to me more like American Library Association’s (ALA) celebrated youth award winners rather than a long list of titles.

The name Mathical was chosen to imbue math with a sense of the magical, or mythical—an aura of wonder and inspiration—and Eisenbud hopes that the prize will help K-12 readers appreciate the “charm and reach” of mathematics. Thus, MSRI is open to all books in which math plays a role. Nonfiction, of course, but also adventure stories, picture books that take an imaginative and original approach to the topic, applications of math to real-life situations and concerns, and more.

To facilitate this wide-ranging mandate, the organizers have crafted an impressive, and unusual, set of judges. There are math professors—including Jordan Ellenberg, of the University of Wisconsin and author of the wonderful How Not to Be Wrong (Penguin, 2014), who was struck by the “variety and multiplicity” of approaches in the books—but also librarian and SLJ blogger Betsy Bird; and author and former children’s book ambassador Jon Scieszka, who, along with some middle and high school math teachers, rounded out the panel. Each book had many readers, and indeed, some judges actively sought comments from young readers. The judges then met—physically and digitally—to share perspectives. Out of this discussion came the first list of winners and honor titles—and one very special addition.

The Mathical folks are aware that in honoring math books they have a lot of catch-up to do and have added a “Hall of Fame” category. This category recognizes a great book published long before the prize existed. The first inductees in the the Hall of Fame were, of course:

The next round of books, the 2015 candidates as well as the second Hall of Fame selection, will be announced at a propitious time in the coming year. For authors or publishers interested in submitting books for consideration, a set of guidelines is available from mathicalbooks.org/guidelines-2/.

So, take flight with your math books. It’s time.

Marc Aronson is the author of SLJ’s column Consider the Source, a Rutgers University lecturer in the School of Communication and Information, and the author of many notable nonfiction titles for children and young adults.