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


Leave a comment

30 Ways ECBC Helps Cancer Warriors Thrive Through Treatment: Day #12 of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

September 12. The twelfth way that ECBC has helped hospitalized kids thrive through treatment is through our Super Book Give Aways, which happen in the CHOC lobby alongside MaxLove Project’s Be Super Parties. During these lobby parties, cancer warriors and their siblings generally come to the lobby specifically to craft with MaxLove, but ECBC has usually succeeded in luring kids over to our mobile book cart so they can select one to several books to keep as ECBC volunteers reiterate the importance of reading while in the hospital. Sometimes during these events ECBC has also hosted a storytime followed by a book-inspired craft — which is especially powerful because literature-based art activities help children to think creatively and more deeply about what they read.

To support BOOK IT 2020 and Childhood Cancer Awareness Month by helping to fund ECBC’s Super Book Give-Aways, go to runsignup.com/BOOKIT2020. Donate $10 to provide one book for the mobile book cart, $50 to donate five books, $500 to sponsor a single Book Give-Away event including books and crafting supplies, or $5000 to re=stock the entire Mobile Gifting Library Cart. #BOOKIT2020#superbookgiveaways d#readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer#childhoodcancerawarenessmonth


Leave a comment

A Productive Day at CHOC

Today ECBC trained a terrific new bedside reader volunteer (Karen Malone Ottoson — so happy to have you on board!); gave away a bunch of new books to toddlers through teens at our Super Book Give-Away alongside MaxLove’s Be Super Party in the CHOC lobby; delivered 125 new books to the Outpatient Infusion Center; conducted bedside reading in oncology and neurology patients’ rooms; and offered patients in isolation books to keep from our mobile Gifting Library Cart. A busy, great day at CHOC for ECBC!

PLEASE help ECBC keep this all this going for Orange County’s hospitalized kids and join us at our 2nd annual charity run — BOOK IT! Racing for Reading for Hospitalized Kids! Race is in 23 days — sign up now!!!

Click HERE to register, donate, and more!


Leave a comment

A Successful Afternoon at CHOC Getting Books and Reading to Patients!

While ECBC is at CHOC Children’s Hospital weekly reading and delivering books to oncology and neurology patients, our lobby book-give away events and Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) deliveries happen on a monthly basis. So yesterday was our day of the month to do all three. First we delivered approximately 125 new books to the OPI, restocking their otherwise empty shelves; then we gave away books from our mobile Gifting Library Cart alongside MaxLove Project in the CHOC lobby, and finally we ended the afternoon by reading aloud to patients in their rooms on the 5th floor (and delivering books to patients in isolation). These days — where we do all three back-to-back– are always so rewarding as we are able to reach patients in multiple areas of the hospital. Yesterday’s highlight: Our Bedside Reader reported that a two-year-old patient wanted seven books to be read aloud, asking that everyone in the room sit down on the floor to listen! It’s so wonderful to hear these stories of reading aloud and good literature making an impact on children’s lives at CHOC!


Leave a comment

Thank you ECBC volunteers!

This is a quick shout-out to ECBC’s amazing group of “expert reader” volunteers who helped bring books and reading to patients at CHOC Children’s Hospital this month. Our volunteers offered bedside reading with high-quality literature in patients’ rooms, gave away new books from our mobile Gifting Library Cart to patients in isolation, gifted holiday-themed books as part of MaxLove’s holiday Be Super Party, and delivered 100+ books to CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center. December is such a busy month for everyone — thank you Susie, Sandy, Cindi, Julie, Debbie, and Fenny for making the time to make sure that the kiddos at CHOC receive some reading and a new book this holiday season!


Leave a comment

A great afternoon at CHOC of books, crafting, and GOLD for pediatric cancer awareness month

Ethan & Choco’s Book Club had a great afternoon last Thursday at CHOC! We spent the first two hours in the hospital lobby for our Super Book Give-Away, where we teamed up with MaxLove Project’s BeSuper Party and hosted a book-inspired craft in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (theme color of gold). We read aloud the classic picture book Where the Wild Things Are, which features main character Max who wears a gold crown and has an imagination that leads him on a wild and brave adventure, reflecting MaxLove Project’s “B” in their BeSuper Action Plan (“Boost yourself with super thoughts”). Patients and SuperSibs crafted their own gold crowns and received their own new copy of the book, and they also selected one to several books to keep from ECBC’s Gifting Library Cart.

We had a ton of fun highlighting gold, reading, and therapeutic crafting with MaxLove!

In the latter part of the afternoon, ECBC’s bedside reading volunteers had a terrific couple of hours on the oncology/neurology floor. They read aloud to many patients (toddlers through 10 year olds), and gave away a good number of books to patients in isolation. A successful afternoon of books and reading — we can’t wait to expand to more days of the week, more volunteers, and more reading reaching more patients. 


Leave a comment

ECBC’s Super Holiday Book Give-Away Was a Success!

ECBC had so much fun today with the MaxLove Project at the BeSuper Holiday Party at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Kids crafted ornaments, received toys from the amazing student veterans of Saddleback College, met children’s book author Alane Adams and received signed copies of her beautiful “Thief” picture books, and picked out holiday-themed books to keep! And afterwards, we delivered toys and holiday books to the Outpatient Infusion Center—their shelves are stocked with books again! Thank you Child Life at CHOC for hosting us — we are so honored to be able to give back and bring holiday cheer to hospitalized SuperKids! 


Leave a comment

Another Fun Super Book Give-Away at CHOC Children’s Hospital!

We had so much fun at CHOC this afternoon with MaxLove Project and Donovan’s Smile! So many patients came down today — to choose an awesome backpack filled with supplies (Donovan’s Smile), to craft a pencil case (MaxLove Project…AND to select a book to keep!  We passed out about 85 books to patients and siblings, with gifted books ranging from board books for toddlers to longer chapter for middle schoolers and high schoolers. We also had children’s author @Alane Adams join us, who gave away signed copies of both her thief picture books as well as her Legends of Orkney chapter book series. A parent of a four-year-old whose son had just been diagnosed four days ago shared that they had no books in their room on the oncology floor — she seemed so genuinely grateful to receive a stack from ECBC to share with her son! We can’t wait for our next Super Book Give-Away at next month’s BeSuper party!