Young Wild Writers Make Their Voices Heard for Nature
The Young Wild Writer Competition for Hen Harrier Action has seen a surge in entries this year, over 340 from all across the UK.
Young people are becoming ever more informed about human impact upon the natural world and this is evident in the many brilliant pieces of writing.
View Gill’s speech announcing all the winners, and hear her comments on each winning entry, on our YouTube channel.
It’s been a huge privilege to read all the entries – and with that comes the very difficult task of judging them. It’s not been easy, as so many of the entries are of a very high standard. We had entries in the form of poetry, prose, letter writing, story and essay.
So, what were the judges looking for? Amongst many things it is originality and voice of the writer. In a world drowning in information, a good piece of writing has to rise above the rest. It has to make the reader think and reflect. With the increase in use of AI, the originality and the internal voice of the writer will become ever more essential to reduce the homogenous soup of computer-generated prose. The impact of man has been well documented, and many wrote very good short essays on global threats to nature.
The judges were looking to see how this information could be told in such a way, and from an original viewpoint to make the reader sit up and think. The information might not be new to the reader, but the way the writer engages the reader has to be novel enough to bring a fresh viewpoint. Some entries were from the point of view of an animal, which allows the reader to understand and empathise with the animal’s suffering. We were looking for structure and form of the writing to keep attention, with engaging descriptions and use of language. Ultimately, we were looking to see how the writing could engage with us at an emotional level to make us care, to make us understand the threats and potentially what can be done to mitigate them.
Huge congratulations to all who entered – we hope you all continue use your superpower of writing – words change hearts and minds – and if you can do that, you can change the world.
Gill Lewis
The 2024 Results in Full
Young Category (6-8 Years)
- The Last Axolotyl Aedan Garvey All Saints Primary School, Carshalton (aged 8) Overall Winner
- Yan the Urban Elephant Calf Elizabeth Ling Asquith Primary School, Morley (aged 8)
- Scottish Wildcats St Hilda’s Girls’ Prep School* (ages 7-8)
Junior Category (9-12 Years)
- Migration Tehilla Wolfson Tiferes High School (aged 12)
- Will your first Cuckoo be your last? Noah Hinks JP Alternative Education (aged 12)
- Echoes of the Earth Habib Khellah Wilmington Grammar School (aged 12)
Senior Category (13-16 Years)
- The Whispering Trees Sophie Bingham Huntington, York (aged 14)
- Hidden Gem Sophia Dodridge Homeschooled (aged 16)
- People Jessica Gardiner Rossall School, Fleetwood (aged 15)
* Why the award to a school instead of an individual?
St Hilda’s Girls’ Prep School
Scottish Wild Cats
This is the first time that an award has been given to a class instead of an individual. Pupils of St Hilda’s sent in many submissions in the form of letters from Scottish Wildcats asking for their voices to be heard about the many difficulties they face – habitat loss, inbreeding with domestic cats etc. The class has clearly researched this topic and thought what it would feel like to be a Scottish Wild Cat.
All the submissions, written as letters to the Scottish Government, were different – the voice of the author of each piece coming through clearly. The standard of writing was very high and impossible to pick out one piece above another. However, it was the powerful, collective nature of these submissions which stood out – wild animals do not have a voice. But just imagine if wild animals could write collectively and send their letters of objection about human interference and damage to their habitats.
Well done to wildcats: Anah, Anaya, Ayla, Devina, Leela, Rumaisa, Samara and Zara.
Gill Lewis
About Gill Lewis – Gill Lewis is a multi-award-winning author who writes books about humans, the wild and the not-so-wild world. Her stories range from topics such as deep-sea trawling in the Atlantic, coltan mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo to raptor persecution on the British Uplands.
Sky Dancer and Eagle Warrior both examine raptor persecution on British grouse moors.
Moon Bear won the German Prize for Environmental Youth Literature and Wild Wings and One White Dolphin won the US Green Earth prize.
Gill Lewis writes child protagonists as the tellers of truth and the agents of change.
The 2024 Overall Winner
Aedan Garvey (aged 8)
The Last Axolotyl
There was once a time when axolotls roamed freely in Lake Chalco and humans had not yet interfered with the axolotls’ habitat.
After years had passed however, the once effervescent lake had turned into a small pool littered with trash. In a nearby house, a man sighed, for as a child he had spent summers playing in the vast expanse of water alongside the many creatures that lived in the lake; Including the fascinating species of Salamander, named the axolotl.
Through adult eyes, the man remembered splashing about freely with his friends in Lake Chalco. The first time he saw an axolotl, he recalled being so excited thinking it was an alien that had dropped from outer space. The strange looking creature had lidless eyes, was horribly slimy to the touch and the colour of a rain cloud.
The boy and his friends studied these strange looking creatures and were amazed to discover that axolotls had extraordinary abilities like being able to regrow their limbs and parts of their brain. There was no pollution in Lake Chalco at the time and the axolotls lived freely and happily.
But that was before the destruction started. Natural habitats were destroyed to make way for homes to be built. Then the people came in their thousands. The population increased and the people demanded more space to live. And with the people came their vehicles…….hundreds of them!
Toxic fumes from factories, cars and lorries filled the once clear, pollution free sky. But worst of all was the behaviour of the humans who dropped their trash as they walked, oblivious of the damage they were inflicting.
As for Lake Chalco, it began to shrink in size.
The boy watched on helplessly as the home of the axolotls was turned into a stagnant, watery rubbish dump. The axolotl population began to decrease as the once vibrant lake slowly began to disappear. Summers splashing in the lake with his friends had come to an end.
All that was left of Lake Chalco and the axolotls were memories. A tear rolled down the old man’s cheek.