Ethan & Choco's Book Club

Striving to make access to books and reading a core part of the care that kids receive in the hospital, with the premise that literacy support for children fighting cancer and other life-altering conditions can help promote cognitive health and social connections that are part of thriving through treatment and beyond

Category Archives: outpatient libraries


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Final Outpatient Book Delivery

Yesterday, ECBC re-stocked its outpatient libraries at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion (OPI) Center and at the Hyundai Cancer Institute (oncology clinic) for the last time, delivering 550 new Halloween-themed books for all patient ages and across many genre types.

This was a bittersweet “last” for sure, as this aspect of ECBC has been one of the greatest joys amongst ECBC’s numerous programs. Outpatient book gifting wasn’t part of ECBC’s original mission to bring books and literacy support to CHOC patients — which generally meant children on the inpatient side with life-altering treatment and lengthy hospital stays. In the early days of ECBC, the extras were given to the outpatient side, more as an afterthought. When Covid hit, all of our inpatient programming was halted, including our inpatient book gifting — whereas outpatient welcomed the donations and so we established it as a regular program, creating gifting cart libraries and providing monthly donations.

Over the past many years, ECBC has gifted more than 30,000 new books to OPI and the oncology clinic. We are so proud that patients came to expect the opportunity to select a new, high-quality book as a regular part of their outpatient experience. The best part has been the patient and parent testimonials — mostly in the form of social media shout-outs and emails — sharing their gratitude for specific books, for inspiring their kiddos to read, and even for contributing to school reading awards. We are currently working with these outpatient centers on how to help them continue to offer books to patients and look forward to reporting on that in the near future.

Thank you to all of our donors who have made our outpatient book gifting programs possible over the years. And a huge thank you to outpatient nurse manager Ali Langdon for embracing the value of books for patients and making space in her busy world to support our program — from regularly informing us of specific numbers of books needed for each book type, to organizing philanthropic book drives in the community, to literally carting boxes of books from the parking garage to inside the hospital– Ali made the partnership easy and wonderful.

And finally, we still need a couple hundered more books for next week’s final inpatient event — BOO-ks for Treats on Halloween day. If you haven’t had a chance to donate yet, please consider doing so one last time at https://bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC or by clicking on Amazon image below


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June’s Outpatient Delivery Day!

ECBC just completed our monthly delivery at CHOC Childrens Hospital’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and the Oncology Clinic, re-stocking the bins of our gifting library carts with 515 new books. As usual, we filled the bins with books of every type (e.g., graphic novels, nonfiction, poetry and much more) and for all patient ages  ranging from infant to young adult.  We love re-stocking our gifting libraries each month and knowing that oncology patients are selecting high-quality books to keep (and hopefully read!) each time they visit the hospital!  #outpatientdeliveryday #outpatientlibraries #bookeveryvisit #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer


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Another Outpatient Delivery Day in the Books!

Yesterday we re-stocked ECBC’s outpatient libraries at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center and at the Hyundai Cancer Clinic with 465 new books. As usual, we delivered books of all types, ranging from board books for infants and toddlers to poetry, nonfiction and novels for teens and young adult (plus many more book types for all the ages in between). It is difficult to know for sure how much reading is happening, but we think that the large volume of books that need to be replensihed each month is a pretty great indication that patients are enjoying the books! Board books, Spanish-language books, and graphic novels still seem to be the most popular…and we think it’s so cool that more patients seem to be excited to read poetry!

ECBC has been providing 400-600 new books per month for the past few years, but recently it has become more difficult to keep up. If you’d like to make an ongoing monetary donation that goes towards our monthly re-stocking days , please consider becoming an ECBC GEM (which stands for Give Every Month). You can visit https://bit.ly/donateECBC to become a GEM, and select the monthly amount that you would like to give.


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March’s Outpatient Delivery Day!

Yesterday was ECBC’s monthly outpatient delivery day — we re-stocked the bins of our gifting library carts at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and the Oncology Clinic with 457 new books! As usual, we filled the bins with books of every type (e.g., picture books, graphic novels, nonfiction, poetry and much more) and for all patient ages  ranging from infant to young adult. We love providing every patient with the opportunity to select a new high-quality book at every outpatient oncology visit (that they will also hopefully read!).

Thank you to everyone who donated books from our Amazon wish lists this month. Between our outpatient and inpatient programs, we are giving away approximately 500-700 new books monthly, and we are currently gifting more than we are receiving. Which means that we are also needing to purchase books on an ongoing basis. So, every book and monetary donation is a great help!

Please consider donating in one of the following ways to help ECBC sustain our programs and continue to provide access to high-quality books and reading experiences at CHOC Children’s Hospital:

#outpatientdeliveryday #outpatientlibraries #bookeveryvisit #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer


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Outpatient Oncology Delivery Day

ECBC just completed our monthly delivery at CHOC Childrens Hospital’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and the Oncology Clinic, re-stocking the bins of our gifting library carts with 455 new books. As usual, we filled the bins with books of every type (e.g., graphic novels, nonfiction, poetry and much more) and for all patient ages  ranging from infant to young adult.  We love re-stocking our gifting libraries each month and knowing that oncology patients are selecting high-quality books to keep (and hopefully read!) each time they visit the hospital! 

Thank you to everyone who donated books from our Amazon wishlists this month…We couldn’t keep up with this volume of book gifting without the support of our community! If you haven’t had a chance to donate a book this month, please choose a book from Ethan‘s February Wishlist Fundraiser at this link: https://bit.ly/wishlist_RTTbagbooks. Or, donate a book from our wishlists for board books (https://bit.ly/wishlist_boardbooks), graphic novels (bit.ly/wishlist_graphicnovels), or learn-to-read books ( https://bit.ly/wishlist_beginningreaderbooks)—all of which we have zero in our inventory and are needing to purchase on a regular basis. #outpatientdeliveryday #outpatientlibraries #bookeveryvisit #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer


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First Outpatient Book Delivery Day of 2025!

ECBC just re-stocked our gifting libraries at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and the Oncology Clinic with 572 new books — our largest monthly book donation to our outpatient libraries to date! As of this month, we have a new book cart in the outpatient Oncology Clinic (Hyundai Cancer Institute). Prior, we have had a cart in OPI, but in the oncology clinic we have only had book bins on a couple of shelves behind the check-in counter. With this additional cart, we will be providing an additional 50-70 more books per month (approx increased cost of $500-$700 monthly), and patients will also have easier access to viewing and selecting their book of choice to keep.

Each month, we curate books to meet the diverse ages and reading interests of patients… book bins include board books, Spanish-language books, picture books, learn-to-read books, informational/nonfiction texts, activity and joke books, graphic novels for beginning readers, graphic novels for older readers, easy chapter books, middle grade chapter books, teen/young adult books ,and poetry for kids as well as more sophisticated poetry anthologies for teens and YA. When we aren’t able to fill a bin for a particular book type with our inventory of donated books, we purchase to fill in the gaps. We love re-stocking our gifting libraries each month and knowing that oncology patients are selecting high-quality books to keep (and hopefully read!) each time they visit the hospital — but it’s a hefty commitment for our tiny nonprofit! Please watch out for Ethan’s upcoming wishlist fundraiser and consider donating our current most needed book type to help us keep up!


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Outpatient Oncology Delivery Day!

ECBC just delivered 527 new books to CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and the Oncology Clinic — our largest outpatient delivery to date! Every bin of our gifting libraries in both outpatient areas was empty down to the last book (usually there are a few less popular books that linger in each of the bins from month to month). We love re-stocking our gifting libraries each month and knowing that oncology patients are selecting high-quality books to keep (and hopefully read!) each time they visit the hospital! Thank you to Tarbut V’ Torah Lower School and Baum Orthodontics for your significant contributions to this months’ donation–We couldn’t keep up with this volume without the support of our community!


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Outpatient Book Delivery Day at CHOC Children’s Hospital!

Today was our monthly Outpatient Gifting Library re-stocking day at CHOC Children’s Hospital’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and at the Oncology Clinic. We re-stocked our bins with 315 new books for patients of all ages, so that every time patients visit CHOC for a chemo infusion or cancer clinic check-up, they can select a book to keep. We work hard to ensure that we provide a great variety of book types so that there’s something of interest for everyone — including graphic novels for reluctant readers, informational texts for the kiddos who prefer nonfiction fact books, and a variety of poetry anthologies ranging from the silly poetry of Shel Silverstein to the more mature and emotional poems of Poet Laureate Ada Limon. While we rarely get to witness the patients on the outpatient side select their books, today we had the privilege of catching cancer warrior “B” scan the options, choose a touch-and-feel board book about sharks as well as an anthology of Avengers stories, and sit down in the OPI lobby to start “reading”. Keep reading and thriving, Superhero B!

If you haven’t yet contributed to ECBC’s annual fundraiser and would like to help us sustain our monthly outpatient gifting programs, as well as our inpatient book and reading programs at CHOC, please consider making a monetary donation at runsignup.com/BOOKIT2024. Thank you — we depend on our community to keep it all going!


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Outpatient Book Delivery Day at CHOC!

Yesterday was our monthly Outpatient Gifting Library re-stocking day at CHOC Children’s Hospital’s Outpatient Infusion Center and at the Oncology Clinic. We delivered 305 new books for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults, including some specific titles for patients with special requests. We also delivered 20 of our Read Think Thrive Bags that are given out to kids when they are newly diagnosed with cancer; too many infants, toddlers, and teens were diagnosed just in the past ten days — we hope these books will provide some literary joy in the coming weeks and months as these warriors begin their battles. In total, August’s outpatient delivery included 513 new books for patients visiting CHOC for chemotherapy or oncology appointments. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our August Wishlist Fundraiser for easy chapter books; every donation we receive helps to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our book bins. If you haven’t had a chance to donate a book from our August fundraiser wishlist, please click HERE.


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Outpatient Book Delivery Day at CHOC!

Today was our monthly Outpatient Gifting Library re-stocking day at CHOC Children’s Hospital Outpatient Infusion Center and at the Oncology Clinic. We delivered 352 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our June Wishlist Fundraiser for nonfiction/informational books. Every donation we receive helps to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our book bins. If you’d like to contribute to our July Wishlist Fundraiser for bookcrafting supplies, please click HERE.


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Outpatient Delivery Day at CHOC Children’s Hospital!

This week was our monthly outpatient gifting library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital.  We delivered 425 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults, including some specific titles by special request from a few patients. We also delivered 20 of our Read Think Thrive Book Bags for kids at CHOC to receive after they are diagnosed with cancer (meaning there have been 20 new cancer diagnoses at CHOC in the past month) — which means that we delivered a total of 627 new books plus crafting supplies and other literacy support materials that are in the book bags. We hope these books inspire some summer reading among CHOC patients!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our May and JuneWishlist Fundraisers for Beginning Reading books and informational books. Every donation we receive helps to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our book bins. Please watch out for our upcoming July Wishlist Fundraiser, to be announced in a few days!

summer reading!


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Outpatient Delivery Day at CHOC Children’s Hospital!

Today was outpatient library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. We delivered 420 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. We also delivered 13 of our Read Think Thrive Book Bags for kids at CHOC to receive after they are diagnosed with cancer — which means that we delivered a total of 550 new books plus crafting supplies and other literacy support materials that are in the book bags. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our April Wishlist Fundraiser for Spanish language books. Your donations helped to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our Spanish books. Please watch out for our upcoming May Wishlist Fundraiser, to be announced in a few days!


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Outpatient Delivery Day at CHOC!

Today was outpatient library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. We delivered 400 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our March Wishlist Fundraiser for poetry books. Your donations allowed us to offer poetry to patients for the first time. You can still contribute to this fundraiser in the next couple of days using this link: https://bit.ly/wishlist_poetrybooks. Please watch out for our upcoming April Wishlist Fundraiser to be announced in a few days!


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Outpatient Book Delivery Day!

Today was outpatient library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. We delivered several hundred new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. We also re-stocked inventory of our Read Think Thrive Bags for kids who are newly diagnosed with cancer — each of which contain ten new age-appropriate books and book crafting supplies. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our February Wishlist Fundraiser for board books. Your donations allowed us to minimize the numbers of board books that we had to purchase as part of this month’s donation. You can still contribute to this fundraiser in the next couple of days using this link: https://bit.ly/wishlist_boardbooks . Please watch out for our upcoming March Wishlist Fundraiser to be announced in a few days!


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Outpatient Delivery Day!

Today was outpatient book delivery day! ECBC re-stocked our gifting cart at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and our mini library at the Oncology Clinic — gifting approximately 400 new books for patients of all ages, infant through teen/young adult. ECBC also delivered to CHOC 10 more Read Think Thrive Bags, which are our book bags filled with ten new books and book crafting supplies — to be gifted to patients who are newly diagnosed with cancer. So in total, we delivered just over 500 new books to the OPI and Oncology Clinic today! While setting up the library cart at OPI today, I witnessed an elementary school aged boy select a nonfiction book about rocks and minerals (with actual minerals included) — and while he waited to be called for his infusion, he chose to read the book with his dad (rather than play on a device)! #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer

If you’d like to contribute to next month’s outpatient delivery day, CLICK HERE to access Ethan’s Targeted Wishlist Fundraiser for February, which is focusing on board books.


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Monthly Outpatient Delivery!

This week we re-stocked our gifting libraries at CHOC’s Outpateint Infusion Center and the Oncology  Clinic with 455 new books — with several hundred of them being super fun Halloween-themed titles. We still need many more Halloween books for our big BOO-ks for Treats event next week on the inpatient side of the hospital. Please donate if you can! bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC


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Outpatient Book Delivery Day!

Today was outpatient book delivery day! ECBC re-stocked our gifting cart at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and our mini library at the Oncology Clinic — gifting a total of 500 new books for patients of all ages, infant through teen/young adult. ECBC also delivered 15 Read Think Thrive Bags, our book bags filled with ten new books and book crafting supplies — to be gifted to patients who are newly diagnosed with cancer. This typical outpatient delivery amounts to a cash value of approximately $7500 and wouldn’t be possible without the support of our community via our annual fundraiser and ongoing throughout the year.

Next up: We are going to need a HUGE amount of Halloween-themed books! Please keep an eye out for our Halloween book drive, or consider hosting your own Halloween book drive at your school, business, philanthropy group, or book club!


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Largest Outpatient Delivery Day To Date!

Today was our monthly re-stocking day at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and at the Oncology Clinic. Usually our bins have scattered books remaining, but today every bin from both libraries was completely empty — so we donated a total of 515 new books for infant through teenage/young adult aged patients. One of the oncology nurses mentioned that patients are now arriving for their chemo infusion or their oncology visit eager to choose a book, and almost all kids are choosing a book over a toy. As stated in our mission, ECBC strives “to make access to books and reading a core part of the care that kids receive in the hospital” — it’s so exciting that books have become a regular and expected part of patients’ outpatient oncology experience!

Today, May 24, is also the 5 year anniversary of the launching of our inpatient program at CHOC, which includes bedside reading in patient rooms by our education/literacy expert volunteers as well as our mobile gifting book cart program. Currently, our bedside reading and mobile books cart programs run on the 5th floor, which is oncology, neurology, and multi-speciality — so many of the hospital’s sickest kids with the longest stays. With sustained and improved funding we hope to someday be able to expand this program to bring high-quality literature and reading experiences to all inpatient floors!

PLEASE help us sustain and grow our programs by joining us at BOOK IT, our annual charity walk/run in Irvine, CA! You can sign up to walk or run (as well as donate) by clicking HERE! And, please share our BOOK IT registration site with your own family and friends — https://runsignup.com/BOOKIT2023!


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Outpatient re-stocking day!

Today was outpatient book delivery day for the month of March! Patients went through more books this past month than ever in the past, and we restocked 450 books for patients of all ages. Many kids and families are now looking forward to their visits because they know they will get to pick out a new high-quality book from a fantastic and varied collection. Books motivating kids to look forward to their oncology and chemo infusion visits—I’d call that success for ECBC for sure!

To help ECBC re-stock for next month’s delivery, CLICK HERE to purchase a book from our Amazon wish list. Or, CLICK HERE to make a monetary donation.


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Outpatient Book Delivery Day at CHOC

Today we re-stocked our outpatient libraries at CHOC Children’s Hospital with 250 new books. This allows all patients visiting CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and the Oncology Clinic to select a new, age-appropriate book when they visit for a chemo infusion or physician appointment. We deliver 200-500 books each month to our outpatient libraries so we are grateful to our donors who help us to make this possible. To donate a book from our amazon wish list, CLICK HERE. All books will be sent directly to ECBC and bookplated with donor name.