Constellations
The books around Put Me in the Zoo
Every book here sits next to Put Me in the Zoo for a reason, and the reason is written on the line between them. Click a book and the books next to it appear beside it, without the map moving. The list below has every reason in words, and a way to make any of these the book in the middle.
How to read it
One book in the middle, its neighbours around it, and a line for every reason they are neighbours. The order around the ring is the ranking: the closest neighbour is at the top, and the rest follow clockwise outward.
- a line drawn on a claim about what the books are — a shared subject, or the same author
- a line drawn on how they sit in the catalogue — the same genre, a similar reading measure — which is weaker evidence and is drawn dashed
- the book you started from
- a book with a solid border has neighbours of its own: click it and they appear beside it, while the ring stays exactly where it is
Every line, with its evidence
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The Neighborhood Mother Goose 2004 · 3.8
The same subject (Poetry/Rhymes and Places), the same narrower subject (Stories in Rhyme).
same subject · Poetry/Rhymessame subject · Placessame subject · Community Lifesame narrower subject · Stories in Rhyme
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Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices 2004 · 5.9
The same subject (Poetry/Rhymes and Places).
same subject · Poetry/Rhymessame subject · Placessame subject · Community Life
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Jumanji 1981 · 620L
The same subject (Places), the same narrower subject (Zoos) and the same genre (Children's).
same subject · Placessame narrower subject · Zoossame genre · Children's
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The One and Only Ivan 2013 · 570L
The same subject (Community Life), the same narrower subject (Circus) and the same genre (Children's).
same subject · Community Lifesame narrower subject · Circussame genre · Children's
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Daniel's Duck 1979 · 430L
The same subject (Places and Community Life), the same genre (Children's).
same subject · Placessame subject · Community Lifesame genre · Children's
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The ABC Bunny 1933 · 370L
The same subject (Poetry/Rhymes), the same narrower subject (Stories in Rhyme). Also within 150L of its reading measure.
same subject · Poetry/Rhymessame narrower subject · Stories in Rhymereading measure · 150L apart
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Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems / Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de invierno 2001 · 3.4
The same subject (Poetry/Rhymes and Places).
same subject · Poetry/Rhymessame subject · Places
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The Poet X 2018 · 800L
The same subject (Poetry/Rhymes and Places).
same subject · Poetry/Rhymessame subject · Places
What the map is not showing
Coverage. 3,013 of the 3,815 books in the catalogue carry a curated subject tag, which is the strongest thing one book can share with another. Where a book has none, the map falls back to genre and reading measure — real reasons, drawn on the weaker line, but a beginning rather than a recommendation. The number above is also the work still to be done: a subject on the rest of the catalogue is the single change that would improve every map on this site at once.
Years and sizes. Two books published in the same decade are not more alike for it, and neither are two books of the same size. When they are neighbours here it is because of what they are, not when they were printed or how thick they are — which is why the ring around a book from 1937 can hold one from 1863 and one from 2003, and the list is better for it. The year is printed on a book's line because it is worth knowing, not because it draws anything.
Lists. Awards and recommended-reading lists are not used here at all. Every book on a list shares something with every other book on it, and that something is the list — which is what Treasury is for. Counting lists puts Holes next to The Hobbit.
One layer. This map shows what two books share. It cannot yet show what a book did for a reader — that a journey, or a funny voice, or being believed by somebody, is what made a book matter — because that is not written down anywhere in the catalogue. It comes from readers, and it is the next thing to build.