Sweet Surprise and its students have proudly been featured in the Ilminster Press, following the publication of their fully illustrated children's jungle adventure book, 'The Great Banana Rescue'. Copies of the book in the cafe/shop are selling out fast.

Thanks to accessible computers, specialist software, and a great deal of inspiration, ten of the students from the Sweet Surprise day service in Ilminster have teamed up to write and publish an illustrated children's storybook called 'The Great Banana Rescue', to which they all contributed their ideas, creativity, typing skills, and hard-earned design and publishing skills.

Over the past six months they have combined their imagination with the computing and publishing skills they've learned at Sweet Surprise to bring a new jungle friends adventure to life. The students didn't just write the story. They also had to master typing and mouse skills, word processing, spelling and punctuation, digital design, page layout, and publishing skills to make it happen.

"I can't believe we actually did it", said Toby, one of the student authors who poured their efforts into the new book. "It's very exciting to use what we've learned to make something new. I hope the children will enjoy our story!"

Their highly entertaining story has also been published in full on the Sweet Surprise web site (sweet-surprise.org) to help showcase the students' amazing work and creativity but the most exciting development was the publication of their work as a beautifully illustrated children's softback book, now available directly from both the Sweet Surprise shop in Ilminster and also from Amazon.

"Seeing their ideas transform from a flip chart and a blank screen into a published book you can actually hold has been incredible", said Peter Clark, the Sweet Surprise tutor who spearheaded the project. "Every copy sold supports workplace education and vocational qualifications for adults with learning difficulties".

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