La Jolla harbor seal docent Deborah Saracini wanted her volunteerism to have more impact.

So she authored a children’s book, “Ally Protects the La Jolla Seals,” to teach the latest generation of readers the importance of wildlife conservation and environmental advocacy.

“The purpose of the book is to inspire younger generations to know that no matter how young they are, they can make a difference,” said Saracini, a Del Mar resident who has been a volunteer with La Jolla Friends of the Seals and the Sierra Club Seal Society since 2007.

The author’s main character is about age 10. “So they can look up to her,” Saracini explained. “The book is my personal story that has been translated to the level of a reader between 6 to 9 years old.”

Ally in Saracini’s children’s book outlines how the current seal protections at the iconic La Jolla coastal location came to be. Animal advocates began a quest to keep the pinnipeds and people apart in the early 2000s, citing harassment of harbor seals and their pups. There were repeated conflicts between pro-seal advocates and some ocean users. Bull horns were used. Emotions flared. One person was tasered in one altercation.

Finally, in 2010, the City approved a 130-foot rope barrier to help separate humans and harbor seals during pupping season. In 2012, the rope was extended to 152 feet, leaving a 3-foot opening for divers and spear fishermen. That same year, the city approved a permit to install and maintain the rope barrier year-round.

On March 18, 2014, the San Diego City Council decided to entirely close the Children’s Pool to the public during harbor seal pupping season, and the California Coastal Commission soon followed.

Saracini, recently retired, can trace her love of seals and concern for their well-being to a chance encounter she had with a strayed harbor seal pup in 2007 during a walk on the beach. “As I stood in front of the seal pup, it looked into my eyes and moved its flippers,” she said adding she decided to “walk backward hoping the seal would follow me into the water and it did.”

That led Saracini to her epiphany, and the advent of her seal advocacy and volunteering as a docent in La Jolla, which is home to both harbor seal and sea lion colonies. After retiring, Saracini said she needed to “do something creative,” and found a way to do that by “writing this book to educate young people about how special the seals are, and that they can make a difference by promoting environmental causes.”

Of her Ally character, Saracini said her inspiration was “my 27-year-old niece who I’ve been very close to, almost her second mom. I wanted to use her name as my protagonist, my main character.”

As to why she wrote “Ally Protects the La Jolla Seals,” Saracini said: “A children’s book helps leave a legacy behind. It’s something that will last.”

Will Saracini be writing more children’s books? For sure, she replied, though uncertain whether it would be a sequel to Ally or not. “I’m waiting to see what comes from this book,” she concluded. “I love the process (writing) and thinking about things that touch my heart.”

Deborah Saracini will hold a reading of her book at La Jolla/Riford Library at noon on Wednesday, March 6. Learn more at authordeborahsaracini.com.