Students at a small school in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L. were overjoyed this week, when Jan Brett, the bestselling author and illustrator of more than 30 children's books, came to spend the day.

"I couldn't believe it because Jan Brett actually came to our school. I was actually seeing her in person," one excited student from Woodland Primary School told CTVNews.ca.

The young girl and 60 other Woodland students and parents met Brett on Sunday evening, holding banners and signs to welcome the American literary star to Canada.

"They met me at the airport in Gander -- all those little faces. It just kept getting better from there," Brett said on Wednesday on CTV's Canada AM.

Woodland Primary School and the small community of 14,000 had worked together tirelessly to win an international online competition where the prize was a visit from the famed writer.

That process began accidentally, when Woodland teacher Maureen Hiscock visited Brett's website in January of 2011 to gather ideas for a classroom project.

Hiscock saw the words "enter contest."

With a click of a button, Hiscock learned about a contest that Brett started 10 years ago to give schools the chance to win a visit for the day.

"I emailed Jan to see where in the world she was willing to travel. She emailed me back and said anywhere. I entered and it just went from there," Hiscock said via telephone on Wednesday on CTV's Canada AM.

The contest ran on Facebook between January and April of 2011. Schools had to enter the most "likes" to win.

More than 5,700 schools entered from 20 countries, including Nigeria, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Woodland's 437 students and their parents got involved in a campaign to boost those Facebook "likes" and their chances to win.

Together, they went door to door, distributed flyers and set up voting stations at the local mall with laptops so that people could vote on the spot.

A week before the contest ended Brett emailed to say, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it, because we're looking into flights to Newfoundland."

This is the first time a school outside the United States has won Brett's online contest.

Brett understood why this Canadian underdog had won against all the odds after she arrived in Newfoundland.

"Once I saw the school I wasn't surprised. You walk into their library and it's like Ali Baba's cave," said Brett.

Hiscock and Woodland's other teachers had worked diligently to instill a love of books in their students.

Those efforts were clearly reflected in the beautiful books that were on display in the school's library, and in the children's hunger for learning.

"I don't know what they've got going on there. But they've got those children so excited about books and reading and about the world around them," said Brett.

Brett has been writing children's books since the 1980s, each of them filled with detailed depictions of animals and cultures from around the world.

Her best-known titles include "The Hat," "The Mitten," "The Three Snow Bears" and "Gingerbread Baby."

Brett's trip to Woodland marked her first visit to Newfoundland.

In honour of the occasion, Woodland's students decorated the doors of the school with imagery from Brett's books.

"The highlight of my trip was seeing their drawings of ‘Little Bear' from my book," said Brett.

"Each one was better than mine. They have this pizzazz that you have when you're a young child," she said.

Brett gave a 45-minute presentation on creativity and led the spellbound youngsters through a drawing class.

Brett was later "screeched in" at "Newfie Night" buffet dinner held at the town's golf club.

True to the Newfoundland tradition, Brett was dressed up in oil skins, drank some screech, ate local dishes and repeated old Newfoundland sayings.

Brett also had to kiss a cod.

"I thought, okay, I eat sushi. It would be a neat thing to do. But when it came right down to kissing it on its mouth I had to take a leap of faith," said Brett.

The whole experience, according to Hiscock, "was the highlight of my career." But Brett believes Hiscock will see more highlights in the years ahead.

Those will come, Brett said, "When one of her children grows up to be an author or an illustrator. She's got so much going on up there. The principal is wonderful. Everybody could see what was happening with those creative children that love their books."