The 12-year-old was lying in a hospital bed at Children's Hospital Oakland battling an autoimmune disease that had caused him to drop 5 pounds in 10 days. The Vacaville seventh-grader was weak, covered with bandages and had tubes running through him.

And he was bored.

His mother, Rhonda Roman, snatched a paperback from a book cart out in the hallway. "This'll keep us both occupied," she said as she cracked open "I Left My Sneakers on Dimension X" and began to read.

"My face turned red, I staggered across the kitchen. Mom was not amused." She paused and gave her son a knowing look. "We could have written this book," she said wryly.

Keith responded with a grin that would melt any mom's heart.

Being in the hospital is bad enough. But when you're a kid and you're sick or hurt, a good book can do wonders.

In a bid to promote literacy, as well as help the healing process, Half Price Books has been collecting books for kids at local hospitals, pediatric clinics and community centers since Jan. 1.

Through March 31, people can donate new or used books in decent condition at Half Price Books stores in Concord, Fremont and Berkeley. The Half Pint Library Book Drive, an annual program that began in 1998 and is held in 13 states, has been an overwhelming success, last year collecting 350,000 books nationwide. In the Bay Area, the three stores collected 5,800 books.

"I think the reason this is so successful is that kids are hungry for books," said Susan Martinez, director of patient advocacy at Children's Hospital Oakland, which goes through about 10,000 books a year. The book carts are in the emergency room to help kids take their minds off the pain, and are circulated in the hospital rooms for children facing long days -- sometimes weeks -- of treatment.

Kids and their parents get an unexpected surprise when they learn they can take the books with them when they're better.

"It's a giving library," Martinez said. "We encourage them to take the books home. The only rule is that once they're finished, they should pass the book on to someone else."

At Half Price Books in downtown Concord, the push for books is in full drive. A school bus-yellow banner is draped in the front window announcing the drive. "Donate a new or used children's book today," the banner reads.

Inside the children's section, red metal carts are full of suggested books with yellow stickers on them -- "Anne of Green Gables," "Great Big Dinosaur Dig," and, of course, the classic "Babar and the Succotash Bird."

"We have little kids that bring in their books and people who bring in bags of books every January," said store manager Jennipher Galvan-Speers. Some kids come in and get their parents to give them money to buy books for the drive. "The kids get excited," she said. "I think it helps them feel good to do something for someone else."

Adults also have stopped to help out. Just the other day, a customer handed Galvan-Speers a $20 bill. "Here," he said as he gave her the money. "Buy $20 worth of children's books."

"I was taken aback," Galvan-Speers said. With the money, she was able to buy 10 books -- educational and parenting titles, as well as fun ones. So far, the store has received close to 700 donations, and employees are hoping to at least match the 3,000 they donated last year. "It's really a good feeling to be doing this," Galvan-Speers said as she stood in front of an empty donation box that she expected to be full by the end of the day. "Especially since I've been to the hospital."

The idea for a book drive came about in 1997 when Matt Dalton, Half Price Books' district manager in California, was overseeing the Fremont store, which had just opened. Among those shopping for books was a librarian at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont who mentioned that due to tax cuts the school's budget to buy new books had been dramatically slashed.

"I was trying to think how we could help," Dalton recalled. "We came up with the book drive."

They invited the school librarians to the store to pick out the books they needed and followed that up with newsletters to parents letting them know about the book drive and offering a 20 percent discount. The book crusade turned out so well that they ended up collecting thousands of books over a two- year period for more than 40 schools in the Fremont area.

The idea eventually evolved into a national drive by Half Price Books to provide books to hospitals for children and their families. Kelli Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Dallas company, said their target readers are children between 2 and 7 years old. Peter Rabbit, pop-up books and Dr. Seuss stories are big favorites.

Public response has been so positive that the company has created a Half Pint School program in which local schools host their own book drives. This year, Fremont's Blacow Elementary School decided to participate after first- grader Michael Anderson sent an e-mail to his teacher saying he really wanted to take part in the book collection.

In the first three days of the drive, which began Feb. 7 and ended today, the school's first- and second-grade classes had collected 150 books.

"They're very proud of the fact that they can give," said first-grade teacher Linda Lorenz, noting that several of the students have been treated at Children's Hospital Oakland. "They know it's going to another child who's sick. And they're not expecting anything in return."

For youngsters such as 3-year-old Miranda DeFreeze, who was being treated at Children's Hospital Oakland for pneumonia, a book can be a priceless treat. "Would you like a book?" hospital volunteer Sarah Scott asked Miranda as she rolled the cart into her room.

The little girl, dressed in a blue hospital gown, scrambled off the bed and gazed in amazement at the rows of books. She grabbed "Three Little Pigs," plopped on the floor and slowly began to turn the brightly colored pages.

"She likes pictures," said her father, Damon Thompson of Oakland. He said his daughter was feeling pretty sick on Sunday. He watched her as she got up and raced down the hallway, still carrying the book. "She's fine now," he said as he ran after her.

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