Creation of The Bandimals!
The Whos, Hows, Whys and Whens

Herb Bridgman is a songwriter, arranger and author who calls Cherry Valley, in the San Gorgonio Pass area of California his home.

As a lay minister and counselor at the Larry Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, California, Bridgman found illiteracy and the lack of positive values from early childhood to be the most common handicap of prisoners.

This insight, combined with his love of music and songwriting, led to thoughts of creating a positive musical resource to benefit young people during their emergent years in reading and character development.

They began in a dream, with just the word, "Bandimals," about 2:00 AM, on a spring morning in 1988.

During the following weeks, Herb brainstormed with Vernita DeRouen and other friends, who helped give birth to the Bandimals family.

Animals, they'll be, with fresh faces and appendages borrowed from musical instruments. Kind of musical gardeners, given to sowing and nurturing healthy seed in fertile minds.

Mic Gillespie, the creation artist gave the Bandimals form.

Travis Hanson, the illustrator, brought them to life.

Time, the perfect tool, helped carve the niche for the family to reside in and rest awhile as the storms of life settled.

While studying children’s literature and tutoring students with reading difficulties, Bridgman settled on a proactive format of publishing that integrates illustrated text with color coded footnotes, for difficult concepts or words.

Each book concludes with music notation of the songs included in the accompanying audio CD.

At the end of the CD the songs are included in their “instrumental” version, allowing the listener to sing their own “expression” into the mix.

A musical quiz and values/safety quiz, relating to the text, are available on request.