CLIFTON PARK — Popular children’s books like “Harry Potter” and “Nate The Great” transport kids to a world of magic wizards and pint-sized super heroes, and two Shenendehowa boys are hoping the literary characters will bring comfort to other children battling disease.

Nick Ranucci and Kevin Parker, both fourth-graders at Okte Elementary School, organized a book drive collecting 1,500 children’s books to donate to waiting rooms at Albany Medical Center Children’s Hospital. The boys hope the books provide a distraction for sick children, their parents and their siblings who spend many long hours at the hospital. The books will also be read by volunteers to children admitted to the medical center.

The book drive was not only a show of support but also an active way for the boys to cope with their own emotions watching several of their schoolmates fight childhood cancer.

Parker and Ranucci wanted to share their love of reading so they pitched a plan to school Principal Debbye Price to collect and donate new or gently used books their friends and classmates love to read. This act of generosity and empathy wasn’t a surprise to Price.

“We really stress character education and volunteerism in kids as young as fourth and fifth grade,” said Price. “There used to be a philosophy that adults should try to shield kids from tragedy, but kids are wise today; there is an information overload and they hear about bad things happening to good people.”

It was up to the kids to buy or donate the books that top their own personal bestseller lists. Okte students filled bins with new classics including the Magic School Bus series, Bailey Street Kids and an all-time favorite, Scooby Doo.

The boys set a goal of gathering 700 books and taped a thermometer graph in the school hallway to chart progress. The red line went right off the chart when 1,500 books were donated by Okte families.

“There were a lot of books,” said Ranucci. “It’s more books than I have in my whole house.”

Ranucci said he likes to read books about sports and baseball by himself and with his mom at night.

Parker said he likes to bury his nose in the Harry Potter books. “Sometimes you feel like you’re actually in the book,” he said.

Reading a series of books featuring repeating characters can also give kids a sense of returning to familiar ground, perhaps even evoking a feeling of reading in the warmth of their own homes. “In many ways, it’s like reading about an old friend; that’s why book series are so popular,” said Amanda Sofko, a third-grade teacher at Okte who had the boys in her classroom last year.

The books will replace the familiar aging copies of Highlights Magazine, or dog-eared soft-cover picture books found frequently in medical waiting rooms.

“You don’t see a lot of kids interested in reading House and Gardens,” said Marilyn Parker, Kevin’s mom, who works at Okte and helped organize the book drive.

The books were delivered to the medical center to be sorted and set out in waiting areas at the Children’s Intensive Care Unit and other places where families gather during treatment.

“What we want them to know is that someone cares about them,” Ranucci said simply. “That always helps to know.”