The 27th way that ECBC helps hospitalized kids thrive is more of a “future way” that we hope to grow into — which is to help provide parents with the knowledge, tools, and inspiration to support their kids’ reading and cognitive health while in the hospital and through life-altering treatment. Until now, this has largely been through our bedside readers modeling for parents the importance of reading aloud as part of kids’ treatment, the types of books to choose, and how to read aloud in engaging ways that support them cognitive and emotionally. During their reading sessions, bedside readers have also had informal conversations with parents about these things. The hope for 2021/when our volunteers can return to CHOC in person is to host regular “Parents as Literacy Partners” workshops, which will be mini science-based seminar+discussion style sessions with guidance, practical tips, and materials for parents to use with their kids. We hope these will empower parents to make books and reading part of their daily hospital and home treatment plan! For now, ECBC has a “parent tips” pamphlet available to parents at CHOC (soon to be accessible on our website), which is our first go at starting this conversation more formally with parents. We are excited to expand from this into parent workshops as soon as we can!

If you haven’t yet supported BOOK IT 2020, please consider donating at a level that represents how you might have participated if we were in-person this year: cost of your registration to run ($40), cost of your family to run ($160 for family of four), online book drive donation (an additional $20 for a hardcover lending library book or $125 for a book bag for a new cancer diagnosis at CHOC).To donate, go to www.runsignup.com/BOOKIT2020. THANK YOU for supporting BOOK IT and helping to honor cancer warriors during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!