Ethan & Choco's Book Club

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

Tag Archives: HalloweenBooks


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BOO-ks for Treats at CHOC, Part 1

Yesterday we delivered 357 Halloween books to the Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. The books included everything from silly lift-the-flap pumpkin books for toddlers to beginning readers, picture books, graphic novels, and chapter books with fun Halloween-themed stories to joke books and creepy nonfiction/fact books for reluctant readers to anthologies of spooky stories and Halloween-themed horror for teens. As such, all toddlers, kids, and teens will get to select a new Halloween book when they visit OPI or clinic. In addition, yesterday and all month our volunteers on the inpatient side of the hospital are reading Halloween-themed books during their bedside reading sessions with Oncology and Neurology patients on the 5th floor. There’s so much terrific children’s Halloween literature, and it’s so fun to share it with CHOC kiddos in October!.

We are looking forward to our even larger Halloween book donation at the end of the week to the inpatient side of CHOC for their annual trick-or-treating event on October 31st. Until then, we are busy preparing 220 Halloween-themed book bags!


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It’s Book Delivery Day!

It’s book delivery day at CHOC Outpatient Infusion (OPI) Center and CHOC’s Oncology Clinic! We refilled our gifting libraries with approximately 300 new books for infants through teen/young adults, which included a ton of Halloween-theme books for kids who visit Oncology or OPI in the next week. We also re-stocked inventory of our Read + Think + Thrive Bags for kids newly diagnosed with cancer (which amount to too many diagnoses this month). And, we’re looking forward to our large Halloween book delivery for CHOC’s reverse trick or treating event next week! If you want to get in a last minute donation, you can do so by clicking HERE.


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Today’s Outpatient Infusion Center delivery

ECBC’s new mobile COOL (CHOC Oncology Outpatient Library) Cart has been wheeled around to patients visiting CHOC OPI for infusions for about two weeks now, and today I had the pleasure of re-stocking the cart with a whole bunch of awesome kid lit, including about 50% Halloween books (ranging from board books to young adult horror and everything in between). I also replenished the supply of our book bags for kids who are diagnosed with cancer —too many kids are being diagnosed right now. And I got to fulfill an individual request for a specific book series—the patient didn’t want any of the 250 books on the cart, only Mercy Watson chapter books (she has good tastes, as this is a terrific easy chapter book series). Gifting high-quality books to kids who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them truly brings me so much joy.


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Halloween Book Drive for CHOC Patients!

It’s hard to believe that Halloween is just around the corner, and ECBC needs your help with Halloween-themed book donations! Annually on Halloween, ECBC has joined in with CHOC Children’s Hospital’s trick-or-treating event by hosting a “BOO-ks for Treats” booth alongside the many other booths that give away candy, small toys, and other treats. This is a super special event for ECBC co-founder Ethan, who was diagnosed with Leukemia on October 28 (2014) and began his chemotherapy on October 31, while still getting to dress up and trick-or-treat in the hospital. In 2014, there were no books at this event, so Ethan is so proud to be able to provide a literary treat as part of the loot that patients receive on Halloween. 

This year, per Covid safety precautions, CHOC’s Halloween event will happen in “reverse trick-or-treating” style, with CHOC staff delivering goodies directly to each patient room. ECBC has agreed to provide Halloween book baggies to each patient, consisting of 2 age-appropriate Halloween books per bag. We also hope to deliver Halloween books to kids visiting the Outpatient Infusion Center for an infusion in the couple weeks leading up to Halloween. Which means ECBC needs 500-600 books! Please help by donating a book or two if you can! We especially need online book donations this year, as in the past years ECBC has received a few hundred of our Halloween books from school book drives and book fairs, which we are not getting this year. You can donate by clicking ON THIS LINK to our Halloween Wish List on Amazon:   All books purchased from this list will be sent directly to ECBC and bookplated with donor names. THANK YOU for helping ECBC help OC’s kids who are stuck at CHOC on Halloween to thrive with awesome literature!