KILL THE STORY (Hart and Soul) [Mass Market Paperback]

Jahnna Malcolm (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Hart & Soul mystery series debuts with two books that are as peppy--and as unlikely--as anything offered by the classic teen sleuth lines. Unlike Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, Amanda Hart actually attends high school, though she seems able to arrange time away frequently. Amanda's mysterious love interest and sidekick, Mickey Soul, is not so burdened with academia: he owns (and rides for) a bicycle messenger service, an occupation that apparently pays well enough to provide him with expensive disguises and unlimited free time. Mickey's background is murky: he vanishes whenever the police appear and seems to have no family, only a fiercely loyal gang of streetwise friends. The first two adventures involve a sorority-turned-shoplifting ring, and a series of "accidents" plaguing a local theatre production. The itch to find out the truth about Mickey is likely to be a prime factor in readers' continuing with this series. However, despite their penchant for annoying, overly snappy dialogue, Amanda and her pals are decent characters, and these mild-mannered mysteries offer a good dose of fun. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up-- A new series of YA mysteries featuring teenaged sleuths, Amanda Hart and Mick Soul. In Kill the Story, the pair expose a blackmail/shoplifting operation in one of the sororities at Amanda's trendy private high school. In Play Dead, Amanda and her friends become part of a professional theater company in order to solve an attempted murder (which of course they do, easily). The plots are contrived, the characters and situations unbelievable, and the dialogue embarrassingly stitled and cliched. Even worse, Amanda has to be repeatedly rescued from dangerous situations by Mick, her self-appointed protector. It may be that your young patrons will discover this series outside the library and request it. Buy it then if that's your policy, but this is not a demand that librarians would be advised to create. --Trish Ebbatson, Delaware County District Library, OH
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Starfire (August 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553279696
• ISBN-13: 978-0553279696
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #457,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jahnna N. Malcolm is the pen name of American authors Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm HIllgartner. They have written more than 130 published books for children and young adults, with sales of more than 8 million. Their book series, The Jewel Kingdom was published by Scholastic in 1997. Their parenting book, I'm Counting to 10, a compilation of humorous columns they wrote for Sesame Street Parents magazine, received a Parent's Choice Silver Award for 2001.
Their musical Chaps! (Samuel French) has played at over 30 regional theatres around the US. Other musicals include They Came From Way Out There (premiere Oregon Cabaret Theatre, 2004) and Dogpark: The Musical (Samuel French, 2010). Their latest musical, Holmes and Watson Save the Empire, premiered at the Milwaukee Rep in October 2009.
Malcolm and Jahnna continue to work in the theatre as actors, directors and voice talents. Malcolm is an award-winning narrator of more than 60 audiobooks. They met while working as actors for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and were later married on the set of Twelfth Night at the old Empty Space Theatre in Seattle. Their passion for travel has taken them all over the world, from Thailand to Kenya. Their most recent adventure took them to Iceland to attend Elf School.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, June 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: KILL THE STORY (Hart and Soul) (Mass Market Paperback)

I Found this book extremely interesting. The story plot was good and the characters were realistic. This series is about a small group of school reporters and a bicycle deliverary service. The main characters are Amanda "Mandy" the Editior and Mick "michael" the Deliverary service chief. in this book in particular, they together have to solve the mystery of who in the prebby school Amanda goes to wants to prevent a news paper story that amanda has written to be printed. I found the ending of this story completely unexpected. This story was a good introduction to the Hart & Soul series.