Franklin Sponsors New Zealand National Spelling Bee

Sydney, Australia. February 12, 2010 Franklin Electronic Publishers is proud to continue its ongoing support of the national New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee.

Open to all New Zealand year 9 students, the New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee is designed to help children improve their spelling, increase vocabularies, develop correct English usage and learn concepts that will help them right through their lives.

Several finalists from each of the five regional competitions will go through to the national final in Wellington on March 20. The overall winner will represent New Zealand at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC.

Franklin will provide prizes and funding, as well as two Franklin Scholarships - providing students with one year's free tuition at Kip McGrath Education Centres.

Franklin's sponsorship is being provided as part of an overall commitment to improving literacy outcomes for all young people. It complements Franklin's support in Australia for National Literacy & Numeracy Week (NLNW), MS Readathon, The Premier's Spelling Bee, Spellmasters and Franklin Scholarships.

"The New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee offers exciting opportunities for students to win prizes, travel and meet other kids by exercising their minds," commented Russell Goldberg, Managing Director of Franklin Electronic Publishers (Aust.) P/L. "The skills gained will empower them with knowledge and self-esteem," he added.

This will be the sixth year that New Zealand is represented at the US Scripps National Spelling Bee where over 9 million competitors are hopeful of winning a place in the championship final.

"This is a big opportunity for Year 9 students ... Flying half way across the world to compete at the 83rd US Spelling Bee promises to be a life changing experience. As well as the main prize of a return trip for two to Washington DC, there are a number of other prizes including $3000 worth of Franklin electronic dictionaries and Franklin Scholarships to attend Kip McGrath education centres", stated Janet Lucas, Event Manager.

NLNW is a collaborative initiative of the Australian Government conducted jointly with State and Territory Governments.

The Premier's Spelling Bee is proudly presented by the NSW Department of Education and Training and the Premier's Department.

For more information on the New Zealand National Spelling Bee, check out www.spellingbee.co.nz

About Franklin

Franklin Electronic Publishers Incorporated is a world leader in electronic handheld information, having sold approximately 42,000,000 electronic books.  Current titles available directly or through partners number more than 116,000 in sixteen languages under license from world class publishers, such as Merriam-Webster, Oxford University Press, Larousse, Langenscheidt, PONS and HarperCollins, focused in four areas: Language Expansion, Language Learning, Reading Enhancement and Writing Enhancement.  The Company also licenses its underlying technology to an array of partners including Adobe and Sun Microsystems. Franklin’s products are available at 49,000 retail outlets worldwide, through catalogues and online at http://www.franklin.com/au.