Singing with My Son

Last month I was asked to be the Parent Guest Speaker at Ithaca College. I graduated from I.C. in 1973 and my son Johnny is now a senior in the Music School which was also my major. I was thrilled to be asked to speak and it was very exciting. My Marketing Assistant – also an Ithaca College graduate- suggested I talk to the other parents about how my experiences at Ithaca shaped my career so we put together some old pictures of my days at I.C. At the end of my talk, Johnny and I sang together- a wonderful song called “Get Ready to Share” that I wrote with composer Mike Levesque for my new book series The I Believe Bunny. We got a standing ovation! It was a moment I will never forget.

From Children's Songs to Rap

I have been doing school presentations for years, but my children were in college by the time I started, so neither of them has ever seen me in a classroom. That was changed last week when my son Johnny, who is 21 and a junior at Ithaca College School of Music (where I went!) came to see me present my books at a third grade classroom in White Plains, N.Y. It was fun to get his insights into what I do and, because he is a music education major and spends a lot of time with kids, I was able to get his input on things that went well and which could have gone better. I sing a song with the younger kids in grades K-2 and he had an idea for a rap song for the older grades. We wrote it together so here for the first time is the Reading and Writing Rap!

The Reading and Writing Rap by Johnny and Tish Rabe

When you get an idea don't try and reject it
You can write a story when you least expect it
Write down your ideas there's no right or wrong
You can write a story, a book or a song
Keep reading and writing and when you do
You'll find out you're a writer too