Tomas de Torquemada: Architect of Torture During the Spanish Inquisition

A Wicked History

by Enid A. Goldberg, Norman Itzkowitz

Traces the life of the Dominican friar who led the Spanish Inquisition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Middle Grade, Historical

128 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[Abby Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less of a biography and more of a history on the Spanish Inquisition, here's another entry in Scholastic's Wicked History series. With its glossary, map, index, timeline, and source notes, this one will certainly be useful to kids studying the Inquisition. Paintings from the time are placed throughout the book, including a spread of several paintings in the middle of the book. This is a great series to hand to kids needing to read a biography, history, or nonfiction book.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted a book for my kids to be able to read about the truth of the Spanish Inquisition without being overwhelmed by the viciousness of it. This book tells the story admirably. It focuses on one man and his role, but there’s plenty of context given to round out the situation as a whole. The facts of the matter were told, but not dramatized, and there were pictures throughout to help give an idea of the time period. It’s definitely not the most exciting book, but it’s straightforward and thorough, and mentions when there isn’t enough factual information to reach a definite conclusion about something, or when the author is speculating vs. having historical information to back up a statement.

This book would be appropriate for probably 4th grade and up.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly pre-dates the notion of AI generated books, predicts that style.

[Meltha · Rating 2 out of 5]

As other people have mentioned, this isn't so much a biography of Torquemada as a small history of the Spanish Inquisition that has a general focus on Torquemada, most likely, as the author's mention in their endnote, because Torquemada is pretty much a non-entity until he's 58 years old and they have to guess in order to put together much of his background. There is definitely a lot of guesswork in here, which is generally admitted to, stating that certain events may have happened, or that stories circulated that such-and-such probably occurred. That does get a bit maddening. The other downside here is that the writing style falls into what one textbook I had referred to as the "one-blueprint housing project" mode. Almost every single sentence is exactly the same length with very few compound or complex sentences. Yes, this is a kids' biography series, but if they're old enough to read about various forms of torture available in the 1400s, they can handle decent sentence structure.

I did occasionally feel like the authors were kind of going after every Catholic alive at that time. Seriously, nobody protested this at all (aside, apparently, from the Pope [though the authors say this was probably over money, not scruples], who pulled his support of the Inquisition, not that this stopped Ferdinand and Isabella from continuing on anyway)? No one? While it is an interesting take on a terrible time in history that desperately needs to be covered, and while the series itself is a unique take on biographies, which sometimes, especially in the juvenile section, becoming cloyingly saccharine, I'd be very careful using this one in a class as children completely unfamiliar with Catholicism might think Catholics today are running around torturing people and setting people on fire.

On the plus side, the peritextual elements, including the timeline, endnotes, bibliography, website links, etc., were all very well done, and the visual format was quite good considering they didn't have a whole lot of contemporary images to work with in most cases. I don't really feel I understand Torquemada much better after reading this, but I've come to the conclusion that simply isn't possible anyway.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wicked History Tomas de Torquemada
Enid A. Goldberg
121 pages

Wicked History books have one special thing on their covers. They have a special word that describes the person your reading about. This word is what really caught my eye. Persecutor. Gruesome right? I know but I like that stuff learning about the sad and mournful times back then. Tomás hated the Jews and he himself was a strong Christian. Christianity was everything the rules of the church were the rules of all the land. Disobey one of the rules and your a criminal for life. Tomás made a friend Isabel, smart and stubborn and she wanted to become Queen. Tomás hated the Jews so he wanted them gone. He was and always will be a persecutor. Back then you were judged on your religion and had rules of your religion and I think what if it never changed? What if we were in the society where people were killed just for being Jewish. The way the time periods have changed from then to now Im more thankful for what I have knowing that I won't be killed and others won't be killed just for their religion.

[Jeremy Bear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a terribly comprehensive book, particularly since so little is known about Tomas De Torquemada himself, but extremely handy as a 100-mile-up overview of the establishment of the 15th century Spanish Inquisition. Although many of the details are disputed in other works, this bite-sized "Wicked History" does a nice job of summarizing the most commonly-held notions of what went on.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series will draw in readers with its dark humor and factual information. It makes good use of graphic images and maps to help tell the story. The information is good, and should be enough for middle schoolers. The author presents the facts, allowing the readers to decide if the person was wicked or not. Also helpful is the index, glossary, list of sources and suggestions for further reading.

[Meagan O · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a quick read if you are looking to learn something about this guy but not read too deep. Great for younger people. I marked it scary because these people were real! And that is truly scary.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know much about him. Now I know a little more. I really enjoyed the style of the book. Easy to read. I think it would help get kids interested in history. Especially the parts about torture.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another quick and easy read dealing with Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition.

[Renae · Rating 4 out of 5]

For middle-grade nonfiction, this was about as close as you could get to accuracy without getting really gory. Not bad.

[Jorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starlight Reviews – Philip Brooks’ Hannibal… & Enid A. Goldberg and Norman Itzkowitz’s Tomás de Torquemada… | Jorie’s Reads by Starry Night Elf