Most people have heard the line from the Bible about loving your neighbor as yourself. If you don’t know the rest of the story, in the biblical context, everyone is your neighbor.

Here are three good books unified around a theme of neighbors and how we treat ours. These books contain big T truth – the Truth that comes through in any medium where there is space for it to dwell.

The Journey, by Francesca Sanna

I was immediately drawn to the artwork in this book: the color scheme is gorgeous. Based on true accounts of refugees, but not using any specific countries or situations, the book does a great job of telling a story that could belong to many people. A family living a peaceful, happy life is upended by loss and violence, followed by a terrifying flight towards safety.

The news can get overwhelming, and it can be tough to know how to tell kids about refugees and the refugee crisis. We can get stuck thinking about refugees just as people who “want in” to our homeland. If we live in relative safety, the horror some folks are trying to escape can be difficult to understand. This story captures refugees in the in-between – after they’ve left their homes, and before they’ve found a place to land.

Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story, by S.D. Nelson

Told in the first person, Black Elk’s Vision is the story of a spiritual leader of the Lakota people. It’s illustrated with colorful paintings based on traditional Lakota geometric patterns, interspersed with black and white photos. It tells the true story of the displacement of Native people, from their perspective, in the context of a spiritual vision that was both a burden and a gift.

I was fascinated by the parallels between biblical imagery and the vision Black Elk saw. It was also interesting to read about the experience of Native people from their own view, with insight into their culture and traditions. It is a story of people who were displaced from their land by those who came after, and of broken promises, yet it ends with a spirit of hope.

Citizen: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine

I’m not a big poetry person. But Rankine’s poetry is written kind of like prose. For me, that made it more accessible. I listened to the audiobook, and also read the paper version. Both hearing  and seeing the words helped a lot with comprehension.

“The people around you have turned away from their screens. The teenagers are on pause. There I go? you ask, feeling irritation begin to rain down. Yes, and something about hearing yourself repeating this stranger’s accusation in a voice usually reserved for your partner makes you smile.” -Claudia Rankine

The book uses artwork and the poetry, to challenge you to put yourself in another person’s shoes: to really think about the different experiences of citizens of the United States. You’re forced to grapple with the parallel worlds that exist. In that cognitive dissonance, Rankine creates space for a range of emotions, including anger, compassion, and understanding.

It’s difficult to view life from the perspective of people who don’t take safety for granted, people who have suffered injustice. It’s so important to let ourselves go there, though, because humankind has to make the big changes and big reconciliations together. If only some of us come along, the healing will never be complete.