[Y]oung Writers Project, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power, and to gain confidence and skills for school, the workplace and life.
Check out the most recent issue of The Voice, Young Writers Project’s monthly digital magazine. Click here.
Each week, VTDigger features a writing submission – an essay, poem, fiction or nonfiction – accompanied by a photo or illustration from Young Writers Project.
YWP publishes about 1,000 students’ work each year here, in newspapers across Vermont, on Vermont Public Radio and in YWP’s monthly digital magazine, The Voice. Since 2006, it has offered young people a place to write, share their photos, art, audio and video, and to explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org. For more information, please contact Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org.
[S]pring: snow melting, buds unfurling, the first few happy winks from the sun… and the sweet symphonies of peepers and toads, of course. This week, Charlotte Dodds of Burlington writes in celebration of the amphibious critters that announce the season just as cheerfully as the birds.
Have You Ever Heard Toads Singing?
By Charlotte Dodds, 14
[T]he first time I heard the sound of the toads residing near my house, serenading their lovers, I decided to leave my window open the whole night. The combined smell and humidity of the freshly fallen rain coming through my window infiltrated my body that evening, infusing thoughts of slumber into my young mind. I sat at my desk for hours, letting the toads’ long croaks slowly lull me to sleep.
In my opinion, there are few things more relaxing than the hopeful love songs toads sing once the sun has retired for the day. In case you’ve never heard the sonorous tones of a toad during a summer night (particularly the humid, sticky ones), I will try to describe the sound to you now – though it is hard to capture. There is a certain quality, possibly a ringing, that toads seem to possess in their croaks. Perhaps it could be that they harmonize with each other, to put on an even grander show for the mates they sing to (I’ve always loved the duets especially). There’s majesty in hearing nature singing in the dark, when vision has disappeared, for in return we are given a greater understanding of the rest of our senses – of taste, touch, hearing, and smell, all things I will never tire of.
So if you ever find yourself in need of a toad concert, send me a note. I’ll tell you to come on over, and we’ll listen to toads singing the whole night long. Doesn’t that sound nice?
