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


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ECBC at the OC Book Fair!

ECBC had a terrific day yesterday at the OC Book Fair in Old Town Tustin, hosted by the Tustin Literary Foundation and Arvida Book Co. This inaugural event included indie bookstores, publishers, local nonprofits, food trucks, and a fantastic turnout of hundreds of literature enthusiasts. We had an impressive number of people stop by the ECBC booth — and most seemed genuinely interested in learning about our cause. We didn’t collect many books, but we did lots of sharing about our programs, engaged many kids in writing personal Care Cards for the cancer warriors who receive our new diagnosis book bags, and ended up with a long list of names of people who are interested in becoming a bedside reader at CHOC. And, Ethan enjoyed kicking off the day on stage by reading aloud a story and sharing about ECBC with the audience. Thank you to Leah of Alternating Current Press for her generous donation of poetry and short fiction for our teens and young adult patients, and we so appreciate our amazing bedside readers Theresa, Derek, and Joy for joining us to help run our booth. And a big thank you to Arvida owners Sam and Mike for inviting ECBC to be part of this special day. It’s so fun to see our community gather and connect around all things bookish, while supporting local businesses as well! We look forward to being back next year!

Ethan on stage at OC Book Fair 2024


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THANK YOU Baum Squad!

A HUGE thank you to Baum Ortho for this amazing donation of 160 new books! Baum families who donated, you did a terrific job at picking out highly popular titles and so much variety — we received books in every book type category! We are so very grateful for ECBC’s ongoing partnership with Baum Ortho. It makes a big difference for us to have these awesome books coming in regularly, which go right to oncology and other patients at CHOC Children’s Hospital!


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Storytime at Tiddlywinks!

We had so much fun this morning at Tiddlywinks in the Orange Circle, where Ethan led a storytime along with The Potting Shed owner Jack! Thank you to the kiddos (and their parents and grandparents) who attended, and THANK YOU to Tiddlywinks owner Jeannie for inviting Ethan to read. Tiddlywinks is hosting a book drive for ECBC for the month of August, so if you’re in the area, please consider stopping by this wonderful toy (+book) store to purchase a children’s book to donate!


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THANK YOU KRISTIN AND STUDIO 17!

A HUGE thank you to Kristin Chahbazian/Studio 17 for her super generous donation to ECBC! Recently, Kristin hosted a book drive at her Tustin-based salon where she asked her clients to donate books in lieu of giving her a monetary tip. Her amazing clients donated a total of 91 new books — mostly all popular, high-interest titles! What an amazing way to inspire community to support our cause — by turning her usual monetary tips into books for kids at CHOC Children’s Hospital! We are so very grateful for Kristin’s philanthropic heart!