Malou Beauvoir’s OUR VODOU: A Vodou Bedtime Tale (Book 1) is the first of two books in which she, as she puts it, embarks on a “sacred journey of honoring memory and spirit.” This tells the story of Beauvoir’s ancestors, who originated in the ancient kingdoms of Nubia and Kush in northeast Africa, and how they migrated to Dahomey in west Africa. It also makes reference to the arrival of slavery. This celebration of Haitian cultural traditions is meant both to educate and engage middle-grade readers. The framing device used is that of a grandmother telling a bedtime story to a grandchild confused about Vodou and its meaning. A glossary at the book’s conclusion is an insightful and valuable addition.
The principal fault, however, lies not in Beauvoir’s narrative, which is sound, worthwhile, and frequently compelling. It’s in the illustrations, which are generated by AI. Programs such as Midjourney are of course powerful and impressive, but their use in lieu of an illustrator results in significant incongruities and tonal peculiarities. For one thing, there is no stylistic unity. The illustrations tend to vary drastically. On one page, the work evokes an oil painting in the Realist style, while on others they exhibit a more modern, realistic, airbrushed quality. Elsewhere the pictures are on nodding terms with the sort of material found in some graphic novels.
Furthermore, several errors of the sort that users of image generators are well accustomed to seeing find their way into the illustrations. Arms and hands are frequently distorted; on page 27, the principal figure in the illustration has one foot that’s far smaller than the other. On page 30, the attention of the reader, which should be on the plight of the characters depicted (men condemned to endure the unimaginable horrors of the Middle Passage as slaves on the beach awaiting transportation) is sapped by the appearance not of sailboats or tall ships, but a very modern-looking container ship in the background. The picture on page 33, clearly meant to evoke Turner’s Slave Ship (a deeply moving and masterful depiction of the atrocity of throwing slaves overboard to lighten ships), features vessels with some very peculiar-looking rigging. AI is not good at drawing tall ships.
This is all a shame. Beauvoir’s purpose is laudable, and her storytelling voice is both clear and compelling. To her credit, she fully acknowledges the provenance of the illustrations, but it’s hard to concur with the statement that it “helped [her] shape the whispers of [her] ancestors […] with quiet precision.” For this reviewer at least, the illustrations proved an impediment to enjoyment and a persistent distraction.
Malou Beauvoir’s OUR VODOU: A Vodou Bedtime Tale (Book 1) seeks to engage and educate young readers about Haitian cultural traditions, but it’s hampered by the uneven quality of its AI-generated imagery.
~ Craig Jones for IndieReader