​Author With Ocean City Roots To Release New Children’s Book

TAMPA, FL — A children’s book author who grew up in Ocean City is preparing to release the second book in her series “The Military Child Chronicles” this fall.

Athens Pellegrino is a busy mom of two who works for the U.S. Air Force as a civilian budget analyst while her husband is active duty. Their military lifestyle has required them to move around the country, and sometimes overseas for work.

In the summer of 2020, Pellegrino was pregnant with her daughter and her son was 17 months old when the family received Permanent Change of Station Orders (PCS) and had to move in the middle of the pandemic.

As the family prepared to move from Montgomery, Alabama to Tampa, Florida, Pellegrino tried to find books about military families relocating that she could read to her son, but she couldn’t find anything suitable for his age group. Most of the books she found were based on a parent deploying or going away.

“Initially I decided I would just write him his own short story and keep it within the household to build excitement for the move,” Pellegrino told Patch.

Once she started writing, a few close friends asked to read her stories, as they felt it could help them when the time came for their families to move again.

Upon realizing that the book could be a resource for military children and that there were many more stories to be told from their perspective, Pellegrino decided to self-publish her book.

“MISSION: MY FIRST PCS” was released May 27, and since then “The Military Child Chronicles” has evolved into a multi-book series that addresses the different obstacles that children in military families face.

The story illustrates and highlights the challenging feelings children may experience alongside tips and activities to help military families navigate the changes they experience upon moving throughout the book.

“Oftentimes military families get a lot of anxiety or they get upset because they like where they’re currently living and they have to move somewhere that’s even further away from family,” Pellegrino said. “There’s just a lot of bad stigma about moving and I wanted to make it more of a positive thing for families.”

The books are closely based on Pellegrino’s family and she expects the stories in her books will continue to draw from her kids' experiences as they grow up.

Her second book scheduled to be released in November will focus on the geographical separation families face and how to cope with it during the holiday season.

Her books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target and Waterstones.

Though Pellegrino has lived around the world, she still remembers growing up and attending school in Ocean City. She went on to attend college at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where she met her husband. The couple got married at Renault Winery in Egg Harbor City.

Pellegrino and her family make trips back to the Ocean City area at least once a year. Her parents live across the bridge in Somers Point and her brother lives in Egg Harbor Township.

“We have a lot of sentimental memories so that’s why we try to get back (to Ocean City) no matter where in the world we’re living at least once or twice a year,” she said.

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