Children's Author to Sign Books in Ocean City on Tuesday

Heidi Rader, author of a children's book about endangered sea turtles, will be at Sun Rose Words & Music (756 Asbury Avenue) in Ocean City on Tuesday, July 30.

Rader will sign copies of "Moon Over Bioko" from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

About the book: Moon Over Bioko; Sea Turtles of Bioko Island is the award-winning story of Deme, a 10-year-old boy from the village of Ureca who dreams of someday following in his father’s footsteps working as a member of the sea turtle census team collecting data and monitoring the nesting habits of four endangered species of sea turtles that nest on the black sand beaches of Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, West Africa.

His father promises Deme that if he studies his school lessons and does well, he will allow him to accompany him one night on a turtle census.  Impressed by Deme’s desire to learn, his father makes good on his promise. Moon Over Bioko follows Deme as he discovers on his journey from the classroom to the black sand beaches, the value of an education, and the importance of the preservation of not only the sea turtles of Bioko Island, but of all living things, through good conservation practices.

About the author: A local resident of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, Heidi Rader is an Environmental Educator with the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, an author and a research assistant with the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program. When not teaching at the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, Heidi can be found traveling both in the US and overseas reporting on the status of the four endangered species of sea turtles on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, West Africa.

As a research assistant for the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program, which is an academic partnership between Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) and Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial (“UNGE”, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea), she traveled to Bioko Island in 2006 as a participant in a three week expedition working alongside the villagers of Ureca collecting sea turtle data. She returned again to the island in 2008 and 2010. In 2008 she assisted photographers from National Geographic Magazine as they documented the expedition and biodiversity of Bioko Island.

Heidi’s first children’s book: Moon Over Bioko; Sea Turtles of Bioko Island, draws from her experience of living on the island and working with the four species of endangered sea turtles that nest on the black sand beaches. Heidi is excited to be returning to Bioko Island in the fall of 2013 to teach sea turtle conservation in the elementary schools using Moon Over Bioko, which was recently released in Spanish, as the core of the curriculum.

— News release from Wildlife Conservation Publishers