Hawera Intermediate School librarian Sue French sent a letter thanking them for the books.
"They are wonderful and I would have chosen every one of them myself. In fact most of them are on my wish list that I have been compiling this morning," the letter read. "As you can imagine the loss of our beautiful library is huge, especially for me and also those students for whom it was a happy place for reading and learning and a refuge for others.
"You have cheered me up a lot. Thank you so much for your kindness."
Ms McNaught has asked Mrs French for her "wish list", so she can send it out to all public libraries in New Zealand to see if they have any of the books, which they can donate.
Mrs French told the Times-Age that she was "absolutely amazed" by the gesture. She said since the fire last week teaching had started and the school staff and students "were making do" with what they had left.
"Everyone is bending over backwards to help us and people have just been amazingly generous and helpful," she said.
Last year the council donated books to Paraparaumu School following a fire that destroyed its library.
"My view of the world is there are things that might not be any use to us but may be of use to somebody else," said Ms McNaught. "Nobody wants to see anything go to waste if someone else can use them."
Martinborough Library is doing "a big weed" through its books, as is Greytown Library and both will be sending a shipment of books to Hawera Intermediate School soon.
SWDC chief executive Paul Crimp said the initiative by library management and council staff had been a great idea.
"This is an excellent way to put these books to immediate use while the intermediate school rebuilds their stock."
