GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – Mama wondered, “Why? Why would they accept any chicken or rooster but be so unkind to a guinea hen that looked and sounded a little different?” In her children’s book “Where Does She Fit In?” Hilary Bastiani addresses this question and more, but the greatest part is the answer was discovered on her own farm.

Recently transplanted from Chico to Gridley, the Bastiani family has been hard at work realizing Hilary’s life-long dream of living on a farm. Kevin and Hilary Bastiani purchased their property in Gridley, taking on the challenge of an overgrown 2-acre plot that required a lot of work and a home desperate for renovation. After a year of blood, sweat, tears and faith, they have turned it into an idyllic family farm and a little more– Little Farm Mama LLc. The impressive thing is that they did it all on their own, with no previous experience, while raising two beautiful children, running Kevin’s business, Bastiani Plumbing, Hilary working full-time, and taking care of a host of mischievous furred and feathered animals. If that wasn’t enough to keep them busy, Hilary found the time to write and publish a children’s book (actually a few)!

Bastiani explains that growing up books were her whole world, where she would escape to, and she has always “wanted to write that for other kids who feel what I feel but I never had the material. And it was because I was never meant to write fiction!”

Touring the farm with Bastiani, one realizes the characters in her book, like Lilac, are real animals living on her farm and doubling as muses - the stories she writes about them non-fiction. Illustrations by Sandy Schwartz, Hilary’s mother, depict the true-to-life images of the animals, so readers get to see what guinea hen Lilac really looked like, or Bessie the cow. As readers open to page one of her book, they might recognize the feed store pictured; none other than Wheeler Ranch and Feed in Biggs where Hilary has found amazing support from Kari Wheeler and Kayla Dunlap, whether it was helping purchase the farm through Wheeler Ranch and Realty or stocking it with animals and keeping them healthy through the feed store.

Through trial and error, adventure after adventure, Bastiani plans to bring the stories of her animals, farm and family to yours in a wholesome way. “Every one of my stories will talk about bullying or acceptance or body image, or comparison, or disability – it will always talk about that because those are the issues that affected me the most in school, or those were the things I saw that affected my friends and I thought, you know, there has to be a better way. We can’t just say, look at the next generation-they’re struggling, or they’re not where they should be or they’re not as empathetic as they should be or they’re too focused on electronics – they’re being raised by us. And the messages that they are getting are from our society. I want to touch on those subjects for every human being, regardless of their background, and if they can identify with this sweet little animal instead of one more adult telling them how to live, then I think that’s a homerun! For me it’s more of a passion project….it’s just something that’s on my heart to do and I never had the stories until we moved here and I thought “I can’t stop writing!”

And she hasn’t.

Readers can expect this author to be prolific, her second book “Piglets for Christmas” will be available to the public any time now, with a book signing scheduled for Saturday, July 31^st at Grace Community Church in Chico. The heartwarming tale of Lilac, “Where Does She Fit In?” can be purchased at Barnes and Noble in the “Local Artists” section, Wheelers Ranch and Feed (they even have signed copies!), directly from Bastiani at her website Littlefarmmama.com, Target, Amazon and eBay. Bastiani will also be donating copies of her book to the libraries in Gridley and Biggs so that every child can have a chance to discover, learn and explore with the animals on the farm and be privy to positive, life-affirming messages.

For more information on Bastiani’s children’s books, videos about the animals, music and more visit littlefarmmama.com.