About Us

Hello! We are Taryn and Sarah. We met during college, in the fall of 2001, and have been friends since picking each other as roommates on an adventure filled study abroad trip to France in 2002. We are both rather bookish, and whenever we catch up with each other, the question, "have you read anything good lately?" always comes up.

After having children, we expanded our recommendations to include children's books, then children's toys, as they seem to go hand in hand. We realized that we wanted a place we could share our collective knowledge and discuss ideas and recommendations with other bibliophiles.

So Tee & Penguin was born.

One of our big goals is to help you find wonderful books to read with your children, because reading is essential.

We are also big proponents of play time and will be sharing our top toy picks, as well as gift guides, and general toy excitement.

Meet Sarah:

I am a mother of two, I love books and adventures and I want my kids to follow in my footsteps and love both of those things as well.

Before I became a mother, I got my degree in International Relations at BYU and spent my free time having adventures. I have always loved being holed up in a library or bookstore reading books but am also a little bit of a thrill seeker. As soon as I turned 18 the first thing on my list of "things to do as an adult" was go skydiving and so I did.  It was amazing!

After graduating I probably had one of my most interesting jobs, which was working at The Embassy of Sudan in Washington, D.C.; I eventually made my way to my 2nd most interesting job at The Olympic Park in Park City, UT working as an ice maker on the bobsled track before landing at a start up design company as a project manager. I stayed with Logoworks until just after having my first child.

Now that I am a mother I still spend my free time reading and trying new things while also trying to come up with adventures for our family. I love books from all genres but would have to say that a lot of my favorites are non-fiction. I am always looking for books to add to my to-read list as well as the kid's wish list. I love giving books as gifts so if there is an occasion or a holiday to give something to my kids, it will usually include a book.

My husband and I have been married for almost 11 years and we have lived in 6 different states from the east coast to the west coast and many different cities. We somehow ended up between both coasts and currently live in Texas.

Meet Taryn:

I think the two best ways to experience the world are travel and reading.  I love them both.

My favorite books to read are memoirs, biographies, and quirky non-fiction.   I spend a ridiculous amount of time searching for books to add to my reading list and perusing the children’s section at the library. 

I love the experience of going to a totally foreign place, experiencing all that it has to offer.  My family and I spent most of 2015 living in Indonesia and traveling around Asia.  We only brought 4 suitcases with us and one of them was the filled entirely with children’s books.   I could have done without the weekly food poisoning and typhoid but, other than that, it was amazing and we’re already plotting how to get another post abroad.

I love being outside doing pretty much anything, except camping.  I’m also a huge nerd.  I got my (extremely practical) degree in Political Science from BYU and a Masters in Public Health from George Washington University.  I spent five years working on Capitol Hill and then the next five years working for different state government health programs in various capacities. I’m a serious political junkie and am simultaneously cringing at and enjoying the political theatre of 2016.

My husband and I met in Washington DC and have been married for almost 10 years.  We have two awesome kids and hope to have more.  I grew up in a big family on the east coast but have lived all over the place, from New Hampshire to Hawaii.  I currently live in beautiful Orange County, California and cannot wait to see where the next ten years will take my family.

Please note: you'll find book and toy recommendations and reviews on this site. In some instances, we'll provide links to purchase some of these items from Amazon. We are both big fans of Amazon and use it for our personal purchases.

Tee & Penguin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and link to amazon.com

Our goal with being an affiliate is to take the fees we earn and use them to purchase items for blog use, whether it is as giveaways or products for us to review.