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: Title Talk


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Ethan’s December Title Talk (and November Thank-You’s)

Here’s Ethan’s December 2017 Title Talk (#12), the list of books he hopes will be donated to ECBC in the month of December! This list features Ethan’s favorite holiday books that he wants to make sure are available in our Lending Library.  Books can be purchased easily off our ECBC Wish List on Amazon, and will be sent directly to ECBC. The link to the wish list is: https://amzn.com/w/BLD7UEVPPPO.

If you want to donate a holiday-themed book for our December book give-away events, please click on this link to access our extensive wish list of holiday books that honor a variety of backgrounds and traditions: http://a.co/fedin6F. Holiday-themed books are especially important for kids stuck in the hospital during the holiday season, since hospitalized kids often are isolated from school, community and even family celebrations. Good holiday books with rich stories can spark good holiday-themed conversations, help families create  special holiday memories around stories, and help kids travel outside their hospital room to holiday celebrations around the world.

Also in this video, Ethan thanks our amazing donors in the month of November, including the CarterStrong community, Tarbut V’Torah, Danielle Clawson, Bill Bellaty, and Once Upon a Storybook customers. We are so thankful for these generous and significant donations!

Click here for Ethan’s November Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon Wish List.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon HOLIDAY Book Wish List.


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Ethan’s November Title Talk (and October Thank-You’s)

Here’s Ethan’s November 2017 Title Talk (#11)*, the list of books he hopes will be donated in the month of November! Please donate hardcover (for the permanent Lending Library) or paperback (for the Gifting Library) versions of these books, or any new book, from ECBC’s Amazon Wish List and help us build a library at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Books will be sent directly to ECBC. The link to the wish list is: https://amzn.com/w/BLD7UEVPPPO.

If you want to donate a holiday-themed book for our December book give-away event or to help us create a holiday collection in our lending library, please click on this link to access that list: http://a.co/bNrSjSD.

In this video, we also thank all of our October donors. We had such an AWESOME month of book donations in the month of October, and we appreciate everyone’s support so much.  We couldn’t list everyone’s name, because we had donations from approximately 200 different individuals — WOW!  These donations made our Books for Treats event at CHOC such a great success, and they also started a fantastic collection of Halloween books in our Lending Library!!

Thank you so much to our donors for continuing to keep the book donations coming!

Click here for Ethan’s November Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon Wish List.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon HOLIDAY Book Wish List.

*Ethan’s sister Maddy helped out this time, since Ethan’s wasn’t feeling good.


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Ethan’s September Title Talk (and August Thank-Yous)

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month! In honor of Ethan and his efforts to help kids thrive through treatment by creating a reading program and library at CHOC Children’s Library, please consider donating a special book or two! In this video, Ethan mentions why childhood cancer awareness month is so important, and he provides the list of ten books that he hopes are donated in the month of September. Please consider donating! You can do so by clicking on the link to ECBC’s Amazon Wish list which sends books directly to ECBC (click here), or by visiting Once Upon a Storybook in Tustin, which collects books that customers purchase to donate to ECBC. We need hardcover (for the permanent lending library) and paperback (for the Gifting Library for kids in isolation and for give-away events) versions of every book!

Thank you all so much for your donations!  We’re starting to get more books into the hands of patients, so we need the books to keep on coming!!

Click here for Ethan’s September Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon Wish List.


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Ethan’s July Title Talk (and June Thank-Yous)

Here’s Ethan’s July 2017 Title Talk (#7), the list of books he hopes will be donated to ECBC in the month of July! Please donate hardcover (for the permanent Lending Library) or paperback (for the Gifting Library for kids in isolation) versions of these books, or any new book, from ECBC’s Amazon Wish List and help us build a library at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Books will be sent directly to ECBC. The link to the wish list is: https://amzn.com/w/BLD7UEVPPPO

In this video, Ethan also thanks our June book donors, including those who donated books via Amazon, donations made in lieu of gifts for a child’s birthday, and our awesome local bookstore (Once Upon a Storybook) customers for their ongoing monthly donations. Thank you so much to our donors for continuing to keep the book donations coming!

Ethan also mentions his buddy Carter, a 6-year-old fellow Leukemia warrior who just received the devastating news that he has relapsed — meaning his Leukemia is back. Carter is back inpatient, beginning his battle again at day 1 (after 648 days of ongoing treatment). This (relapse) is the fear that all of us cancer parents live with daily, throughout treatment and for years beyond. Carter’s amazing community of support (called “CarterStrong”) is holding a “CarterStrong Bucket List Book Drive” to fulfill Carter’s bucket list wish (a kindergarten writing assignment) to “read lots of books this summer”. Carter is going to share the books that are collected with other kids who are currently on the oncology floor at CHOC, and the remaining books will be donated to ECBC. If you would like to donate in Carter’s honor, as a way to support Carter’s new fight, please indicate this in the gift message part of your order on Amazon. We’ll make sure the ECBC bookplate acknowledges that the donation is from you in honor of Carter!

Click here for Ethan’s July Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon Wish List.


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Ethan’s May 2017 Title Talk (and April Thank-You’s)

Twins Amie and Aidan give ECBC a HUGE donation of new books in honor of their birthday!!!

Here’s Ethan’s May 2017 Title Talk (#5), the list of books he hopes will be donated to ECBC in the month of May! Please donate hardcover (for the permanent Lending Library) or paperback (for the Gifting Library for kids in isolation) versions of these books, or any new book, from ECBC’s Amazon Wish List and help us build a library at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Books will be sent directly to ECBC. The link to the wish list is: https://amzn.com/w/BLD7UEVPPPO

This awesome little Once Upon a Storybook customer is donating a book to ECBC in honor of her friend’s birthday!

In this video, Ethan also thanks all of our April book donors, including: Mrs. Stephanie Lukkes and her 2nd grade class, children’s author Salina Yoon for donating so many of her own books, 8-year-old twins Amie and Aidan for donating 138 new books rather than receiving birthday gifts, and of course Once Upon a Storybook for their ongoing monthly donations!  

Click here for Ethan’s May Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon Wish List.


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Ethan’s April 2017 Title Talk (and March Thank-You’s)

Here’s Ethan’s April 2017 Title Talk (#4), the list of books he hopes will be donated to ECBC in the month of April! Please donate hardcover (for the permanent Lending Library) or paperback (for the Gifting Library for kids in isolation) versions of these books, or any new book, from ECBC’s Amazon Wish List and help us build a library at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Books will be sent directly to ECBC. The link to the wish list is: https://amzn.com/w/BLD7UEVPPPO

Ethan with his teacher Mrs. Kelly and the box of books he just received from his class’s Scholastic book order!

Ethan with a box of fantastic books from DOGO Books!

A huge thank you to everyone who donated books in the month of March! And thank you so much to Once Upon a Storybook, Girl Scout Troop #3152, Mrs. Suzanne Tarnay Kelly and her 4th grade class, and DOGO Books for their super generous donations in the month of March!

Click here for Ethan’s April Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Amazon Wish List.


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Ethan’s March 2017 Title Talk (and February Thank-You’s)

Here’s Ethan’s March 2017 Title Talk (#3), the list of books he hopes will be donated to ECBC in the month of March! Please donate hardcover (for the permanent Lending Library) or paperback (for the Gifting Library for kids in isolation) versions of these books, or any new book, from ECBC’s Amazon Wish List and help us build a library at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Books purchased off the wish list will be sent directly to ECBC.

A huge thank you to everyone who donated books in the month of February! And thank you so much to Serge Melkizian (my great buddy Andrew’s uncle), the Sherrill Family’s Super Bowl guests, and HarperCollins Publishers for your super generous donations in the month of February!

Click here for Ethan’s March Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Wish List.


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Ethan’s February 2017 Title Talk

img_1268Here’s Ethan’s February 2017 Title Talk (#2), the list of books he hopes will be donated to ECBC in the month of February! Please donate hardcover (for the permanent Lending Library) or paperback (for the Gifting Library for kids in isolation) versions of these books, or any new book, from ECBC’s Amazon Wish List and help us build a library at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Books purchased off the wish list will be sent directly to ECBC.

Click here for Ethan’s February Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Wish List.

 


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Ethan’s January 2017 Title Talk

img_0938Happy New Year! With the new year, Ethan’s 2016 daily Book Look Challenge is complete. It was such a great success, as his 366 “Book Looks” resulted in books in the mail from Amazon daily all year long and around 1400 hardcover books for ECBC’s Lending Library! We are so grateful to everyone who donated books in 2016!

As Ethan explains in the attached video (January Title Talk), we still need a ton of books! In fact, we will always need books coming in to create and sustain a library at CHOC — especially since the unique demands of a hospital-based library mean that there will be significant loss of books and an ongoing need to replace them. So, in 2017, Ethan will be giving a Title Talk at the beginning of each month, where he will share a list of children’s book titles that were not featured as a “book look” last year and that he (or his siblings) want for the library. Like last year, each published Title Talk will include a link to our Amazon Wish List, so that the titles he asks for can be purchased and sent directly to ECBC. Last year, we asked primarily for hardcover books, and we continue to need hardcover book donations to keep expanding our collection of books for the Lending Library. However, we are also now asking for paperback versions of these fantastic titles. We are currently preparing to launch Phase 1 of ECBC at CHOC, which is “Reading Aloud in Every Room”. The plan is to use our high-quality books from the Lending Library to read to the patients, but in order to include the kids in isolation (who are contagious and not allowed to borrow books), we need to create a Gifting Library of paperback books that can be read aloud and then gifted. So please think about donating both hardcover and paperback books, as we very much need them both!

Thank you so much for your continued support!

Click here for Ethan’s January Title Talk video.
Click here to purchase books to donate off our Wish List.