Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman practices a straightforward approach to countering book bans across the country: Read from the books and talk about them. “In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard,” Zuckerman read from Toni Morrison’s Beloved with a poetic cadence to an audience of about 30 gathered at Phoenix Books in Rutland on August 23. “Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 novel, based on the true story of a woman who escaped from slavery and killed her daughter to prevent her from becoming enslaved again, was banned in at least 11 schools during the 2021-22 academic year. Zuckerman has been making the rounds of bookstores and libraries across Vermont since late June, hosting discussions and reading excerpts from Beloved and And Tango Makes Three — a children’s book by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson about two male penguins who create a family together. He said he hopes the “banned books tour,” which continues through mid-September, will send a message that the practice is not welcome, in Vermont or beyond. No books have successfully been removed from Vermont schools in this latest wave of banning, but “it can happen anywhere,” Zuckerman said. The first half of the 2022-23 school year saw almost 1,500 instances of schools banning books across the country — a 28 percent increase over the previous six months, according to the Index of School Book Bans compiled by PEN America, a New York City-based nonprofit that champions the freedom of expression. Given the media coverage that the bans have attracted, Zuckerman said one purpose of his tour is to ensure that the public conversation “is not only about the side saying we need to thwart access to information. The founding principles of our country are about information, the full breadth of information, the truth — whether we like the truth or we don’t like the truth.” Abby Bennett came to the Rutland event with her daughter, a rising seventh grader who loves to read. Bennett said her daughter has enjoyed reading a number of frequently banned books, including A.S. King’s Attack of the Black Rectangles, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. “Everybody should be allowed to read whatever they want,” Bennett said. Different guests join Zuckerman…