Oakland Elementary School received a helpful donation for the school library from the Junto Woman’s Club of Suffolk on April 10.

The club donated $100 to order new library books for students and teachers. The school’s library lost a number of books due to water damage when August rain storms hit while the roof was exposed during maintenance.

“We did lose quite a few books, and this donation will definitely help,” said Principal Temesha Dabney. “We definitely appreciate it.”

According to Julie Johnson, leader of the Junto Book Club, $25 was donated in memory of Junto member Elizabeth Marchant, who died Oct. 6. The other $75 was added because of the school’s unfortunate loss of books.

The gesture also harkened back to when the Junto chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs began in 1924, when 12 Chuckatuck women wanted to organize a book club and introduce a circulating library to the community.

“She was an avid reader,” Johnson said about Marchant.

Library Media Specialist Michele Waggoner asked a class of first-graders on April 10 what books they would like her to order. Waggoner keeps the library stocked with both classroom necessities and student favorites.

“We have to spend it very carefully and get what’s most important,” Waggoner explained to the students, who each raised a hand to cast a book vote.

Some wanted fairytales with princesses and other wanted stories about caterpillars. Children raised their hands for books with cats, puppies and Pikachu. One of them even wanted Moby Dick.

But the majority of these first-graders wanted more adventures of Jack and Annie in Magic Tree House, a series of American children’s books written by Mary Pope Osborne.

“They go on tons of missions,” said first-grader Tristan Roper, 6, about the books’ lead characters.

“Yeah, and lots of magical, cool stuff happens on their missions,” added Christopher Torres, 7.

Johnson was touched to see the children vote for new additions to their school library.

“It was exciting to see how excited they were about books,” she said.