OCEAN CITY — An Ocean City High School graduate is launching her second children’s book Dec. 1, part of “The Military Child Chronicles” series she is writing to help children in military families cope with the issues they face.
The new book by Athens E. Pellegrino, who grew up in Ocean City and has family in Somers Point, is called “Mission: Mistletoe.” It is a Christmas story about not being able to get together with extended family for the holidays.
A little background: the author, a civilian who works for the U.S. Air Force, is married to USAF Lt. Col. Christopher Pellegrino, whom she met when both were attending St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. They got married Sept. 26, 2009, and she moved to Hurlbut Field Air Force Base near Destin, Fla.
Part of the military life means they have had eight official moves because of her husband’s career taking them to different locations in the United States and once to England. (That doesn’t count the smaller moves from one side of a town to the other.)
Athens Pellegrino (nee Voyadgis) has worked for the Air Force for 10 years as a budget analyst.
The first book in “The Military Child Chronicles” series was inspired by all of the moves. It is called “Mission: My First PCS.” PCS means Permanent Change of Station, a fact of military life.
Pellegrino said that at the height of the pandemic, she and her husband got word they would be moving soon. The preschool her son attended was closed and she had him at home. (Atticus turned 3 in October.)
“I was trying to keep him entertained and busy and not watching TV all the time. I was reading to him a lot and trying to find a book about moving,” she explained. “I couldn’t find one geared to his age group. I decided to create a little story and told my family and a couple of close friends about it. They said how helpful a tool that would be for military families and also for civilians as well. That’s when I began to work on the book.”
The boy in the book is named after her son.
Pellegrino said for her, writing comes from the heart.
“As I started to think about all of the obstacles military children face, that’s when I decided to create this series and have several different books to serve as tools,” she said.
The idea is making children excited about the move “because a lot of times, being an Air Force family, they’ll pick up your stuff a week before you can leave so you literally are camping in your house,” she said, laughing. “Instead of dreading that, you want to have fun and make the most out of it.”
Pellegrino features parenting tips and activities throughout the book as well.
“There are a lot of activities parents can use to build excitement for the move,” she said, such as “telling kids they don’t need to be scared when they come home one day and it’s completely packed up and their belongings are missing.”
One piece of advice is telling children they’ll be able to camp out in the living room or backyard. A tip for parents is to keep inflatable beds, beach chairs and tents unpacked because they may well need them.
The second book is a Christmas story inspired by her daughter, Callista, who is 18 months old.
“My daughter was born and seven days later we ended up moving to Tampa. With all the crazy COVID stuff going on, my parents didn’t get to meet her until she turned a year old,” Pellegrino said.
Her parents were supposed to visit for her daughter’s first Christmas but they had to put off the visit because of travel restrictions and waiting for her parents to be vaccinated.
“That’s what inspired me to write this book because it highlights how families might not always be able to spend the holidays with their loved ones, but if they look around they actually have a community wherever they are and can still have fun and spread joy that way,” Pellegrino said.
To make the Christmas story timeless, it doesn’t involve the pandemic but instead is about how a blizzard in the Northeast stops her parents from traveling from New Jersey to Florida to visit.
Pellegrino is the daughter of Peter and Gwen Voyadgis of Somers Point. Sadly, her mother died Nov. 2.
Pellegrino and her husband not only met in college, where he was studying while going through Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC), but later went to graduate school together at Troy University and have the same educational background.
Pellegrino likes the military family life.
“I think it’s really cool. I completely changed around my career to fit the needs of my family and this type of lifestyle,” she said. “Originally I worked in private industry and was pursuing an MBA. Once we got settled in Florida and got married, I realized it would behoove me to work for the DoD (Department of Defense) because no matter where we moved,” she could work in the same field.
She switched to get her master’s degree in public administration to learn more about the government.
“That’s when I started working for the Air Force. I love being able to work with families that are similar to ours. They understand what you’re going through. It’s a really nice community.”
Cody Taylor, based in Colorado, has illustrated both books.
“He’s great to work with,” the author said.
Pellegrino plans at least five books in the series but is hoping to put storyboards together for more books “as my children get older and I see different obstacles that they’re going through or different moments in life that I feel need to be addressed to let other kids and families know that they’re not alone.”
The two books in “The Military Child Chronicles” series, “Mission: My First PCS” and, as of Dec. 1, “Mission: Mistletoe,” are available on amazon.com, at Target, Waterstone, Books-A-Million and the E-version through Good Reads. The website themilitarychildchronicles.wordpress.com has the links to the platforms. On Instagram, go to @themilitarychildchronicles and find the author on Linked In at Athens E. Pellegrino.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff