When Paul Castle posted to TikTok on June 21 about his children’s book being banned, the internet erupted. In a video that’s now been viewed more than 10 million times on that platform alone, local influencer Castle—who has lost 90 percent of his vision due to a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa and runs the popular account @matthewandpaul with his husband—tearfully recounts how a bookstore contacted him and placed an order for 100 copies of The Secret Ingredient, only to send them back. 

The storyline is about two male penguins, Pringle and Finn, who deliver cakes to birthday parties that show different types of families, like a seagull with two moms. At the end, the penguin couple adopts a baby of their own. 

“I can only think of one reason they don’t wanna carry it,” he says in the video, which also includes a screen reader narrating an email he received from a bookstore employee named Tania, who writes that while she thinks the book is “very charming,” the person who placed the order “wasn’t entirely up to speed” on their policies. 

The comments section immediately lit up. “And people wonder why Pride is so important,” said one comment. “This is why. This right here. I’m so sorry, Paul. You deserve better. ❤️” 

“This is so upsetting! We will gladly support this book. It’s so important for our children to see their family represented in stories,” said another.

A day later, the next video was posted. Castle had sold out of The Secret Ingredient. Eleven bookstores had contacted him to ask if they could carry it. His fans rejoiced at how quickly the community came together to bolster a marginalized voice. Happy tears were shed.

Inside the industry, though, some began to wonder what was really going on. Booksellers are, in general, pretty supportive of the right to free speech. In 2024, would a bookstore really refuse to carry a book because it featured two male penguins raising a child? (A not-uncommon relationship structure for penguins, by the way—and already the subject of a beloved children’s book.) And why would they order 100 books in the first place—a huge amount for nearly any bookstore, especially for a self-published children’s book with a list price of $29.95? 

The publishing world is an exceedingly complicated one, with convoluted pay structures and razor-thin margins. What Castle wasn’t telling his followers, and possibly didn’t know himself at the time, is that many bookshops don’t carry books from self-published authors because they buy all their books through a distributor. This allows them to return the books if they go unsold after a certain period of time, to make space on the shelves for something else.

Book orders also typically come in tiny quantities of something like three or five, especially when the author is untested—an order of 100 is massive, reserved for Reese’s Book Club picks being sold in sprawling stores. Castle had set his minimum order at 50 books, a signal that he’s new to industry norms.

“Independent bookstores have very tight budgets and are thus very hands-on with their ordering,” says Don Martin, an author who reacted to the controversy on TikTok. “The difference between two copies, five copies, and 10 copies of a book is meaningful. The difference between 10 and 100 is major. That could very easily be an independent bookstore’s monthly budget.”

In general, a triple-digit order would probably only come if the author were doing an event at the store—and a subsequent video posted on June 24 revealed that was indeed the plan at one point. Castle does not say why the event never happened in the video, nor does he name the store, but he tells Seattle Met that it was planned for July, without a firm date yet decided, and that the bookstore told him it was canceled when he called to press for more details. On that call, Tania “said the contents of the book didn’t align with the bookstore,” he says.

On June 25, he clarified in a video that the original person who ordered the books was no longer with the store—causing the internet masses to assume she was fired by a homophobic employer or possibly quit in protest. They also started going after every Tania (and Tanya and Tonya) they could find in the book world, hurling vitriol at countless innocent women.

“It was certainly a lesson in the power of even a kernel of information,” Castle says. “That was definitely a shock. It really confirmed for me the importance of not divulging any more information around the identity of the bookstore.” He adds that it is not located in Seattle.

At the heart of the controversy is the question of what a book ban is. Is it a broader movement to censor a work—or is it a singular decision by one particular store? Castle believes his book was banned.

“I researched censorship and book banning, and I discovered that if a book is removed from a bookstore shelf based on its content, that constitutes a ban,” Castle says. “It’s really under-reported because a private bookstore gets to decide what books they have on their shelves.” 

Others want more information before labeling this particular situation a ban.
 
“Book bans are usually the result of a book being challenged,” says Martin, who works with the group Authors Against Book Bans. “This typically takes the form of a complaint, often written, expressing a grievance with a particular title. If this were a school or a library, it would likely be a challenge from a parent. If it were at a bookstore, it would be a challenge from a community member. There’s certainly a reality in which an author event was scheduled and advertised but met with backlash that the bookstore chose to appease by canceling it and returning the books.” 

If that were the case, though, “that type of challenge would likely have a social media trail or some other type of publicity, especially if the author were a person of note,” Martin adds.

A returned book, then, is not necessarily a banned book.

“I do think as an advocate for banned books, word choice is important,” said Bob Lingle of Good Neighbor Bookstore, located in Lakeland, NY, in a TikTok reaction video. “One store opting to not carry a book does not mean that book is banned.”

Folks outside of the industry also expressed skepticism about the anonymous nature of the claim. A post popped up about the situation in a subreddit devoted to TikTok gossip. “The whole thing feels like a staged ploy to get views and sell books,” says the most upvoted comment, from user u/JustReadinSubReddits. 

“I really liked them and enjoyed their videos so this whole drama has made me feel really sad,” wrote user u/Turbulent_Pattern_49. “And not in a for them/over the book thing kind of way. Sad because it’s made me look at them differently. To me this was an obvious money grab and way to sell the book.”

Castle says he’s used to the doubters, as people often question whether he’s actually blind. Whether this fits the definition of a ban may never be entirely clear, but instead of trying to boycott the store in question, Castle—who grew up in Mill Creek—recommends focusing on supporting stores you feel good about.

“If there’s a certain type of book you’d like to see in your local bookstore, ask for it,” he says. “If they can’t produce it, look for a bookstore that does have it and is interested in marginalized voices and inclusive stories. I believe that kind of voting with your dollar will result in a far more inclusive world.”