Teenage Readers to Win £1000 with the Penguin Orange Readers' Group Prize

Orange is offering teen readers the chance to win £1000 with the new look 2009 Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Prize.

The Penguin Orange Readers' Group Prize, the UK’s only prize to find the reading group of the year, is being re-launched through the teenage website Spinebreakers, www.spinebreakers.co.uk, as part of a campaign to engage younger readers with the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Last month, Orange announced the appointment of a youth panel to shadow the judging process of the official Orange Prize 2009 judges.

Now in its eighth year, the Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Prize forms part of Orange’s portfolio of literary partnerships.

Entrants are asked to demonstrate how they make reading social, whether it’s through book groups, blogs or Facebook. The competition will also be promoted through social networking sites to encourage younger readers to share their reading group experiences. 

First prize is a cheque for £1000 plus two tickets to the Orange Prize for Fiction awards ceremony in June and two runners up will receive a set of the 2009 Orange Prize shortlisted books.

“The concept of reading groups has been evolving from the traditional monthly meetings in homes and libraries for some time,” said Kate Mosse, author and Chair of judges for the 2009 Readers’ Group Prize. “We want to find those readers who are chatting about books in really exciting, diverse and creative ways such as online, on Twitter, on walls and forums or through blogs and where better to find out how this is happening than amongst younger readers.”

The entry form can be found on the teenage website spinebreakers.co.uk, the Orange Prize website, orangeprize.co.uk and via readers.penguin.co.uk. Posters and flyers promoting the competition are also being distributed in schools, universities and libraries across the UK.

The closing date for entries is 1 May 2009. A shortlist of three groups will be selected by the Orange Prize shadow youth panel members and a winner will be announced at the end of May.

For more information, go to: www.spinebreakers.co.uk www.orangeprize.co.uk www.readers.penguin.co.uk

-ENDS-

For more information or to speak to Kate Mosse, please contact:

Press Enquiries: Naomi Li at M&C Saatchi: Tel: 0207 544 3687 or 07980 697 129 Email: naomi.li@mcsaatchi.com

Notes to Editors

**About Orange **

Orange is a key brand of the France Telecom Group, providing mobile, broadband, fixed, business and entertainment services across Europe. It is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with more than 182 million customers on five continents.

In June, 2006, Orange became the single brand for mobile, broadband and multi-play offers. In addition, Orange Business Services became the new banner for business communications solutions. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries with network reach in 220.

In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population. At the end of December 2008, Orange had about 17 million customers in the UK – 15.9 million active mobile customers and over one million fixed broadband customers.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.

Further information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk or the France Telecom group international website at www.orange.com and www.francetelecom.com

For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com.

About Spinebreakers

Spinebreakers.co.uk is a teen online book community run by teenagers themselves.

Launched in 2007, editorial control of the site is in the hands of a core editorial team of nine teenagers aged between 13 and 18 years, supported by a large network of contributing teen editors from across the UK.

The teen team produce a wide variety of multi-media content for the website including video and audio reviews, alternative book jackets and endings, soundtracks, author interviews, podcasts, blogs, short stories and much more.

About Penguin

Penguin was established in 1935 and is one of the world’s leading consumer publishing businesses. Penguin publishing comprises the following imprints: Allen Lane, Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Michael Joseph, Penguin, Penguin Classics, Puffin and Viking. Penguin has offices in 15 countries and is part of the international media company Pearson.