Minor Characters in Chrissa's Stories

These are minor characters in the Chrissa books.

Meg Maxwell nee Hanlon
Meg is Chrissa's mother, who has dark hair. She is a doctor (MD) and works at St. Luke's Hospital in Edgewater, Minnesota. Louise Hanlon is her mother.

Paul Maxwell
Chrissa's father. He is a ceramic artist and makes pottery under the name of Maxwell Pottery.

Tyler Maxwell
Chrissa's brother. He is eleven months older and in the fifth grade. Tyler is somewhat nerdy and specializes his knowledge in planetary bodies and outer space.

Louise Hanlon "Nana"
Meg's mother. She gives Chrissa good advice about friendship. Nan raises mini-llamas and spins their hair into yarn; she and Chrissa's grandfather used to raise full llamas but with his illness and later death she has gone to mini-llamas.

Amanda
Amanda is Chrissa's best friend in Iowa. In the movie, she makes Chrissa a friendship bracelet. She is blonde and slightly plump; in the movie, she comes to visit Chrissa, Gwen, and Sonali in Edgewater.

Tara James
Tara is the leader of the Queen Bees, which is usually called the Mean Bees. She has been friends with Sonali since preschool; in the movie, the three girls have all known each other from preschool. Tara is very spiteful and goes out of her way to bully Gwen and Chrissa. In one incident, she cuts off Gwen's bangs, and in the movie, she taunts Tyler into doing a difficult dive without supervision and causes him to go to hospital. Tara's attitude is enforced by the fact that her mother thinks she can do no wrong. In the film, it is mentioned that her mother is a hairdresser, although it is possible that the Mean Bees made that up. Tara is on the swim team and competes fiercely with Chrissa; they are the two best swimmers.

Jaydn Johnson
Jaydn is Tara's friend and a fellow Bee. Compared to Tara and Sonali, she has barely any character development. She does, however, think that Tara is perfect and will do whatever Tara tells her to do. She has a pink Motorola RAZR in the movie, like Sonali

Mrs. Rundell
Chrissa's art teacher.

Mr. Beck
Chrissa's homeroom teacher and swim coach.

Mrs. Ziminsky
The principal of Edgewater Elementary.

Janine Thompson
Gwen's mother. She lost her house and had to take herself and Gwen to the homeless shelter, Sunrise House. Sunrise House turned her life around and helped her get a job and, near the end of the film, move into an appartment. Janine's husband left her and Gwen in the books after losing his job; in the movie, she simply says that she lost her husband.

Mrs. Matthews
Sonali's mother. Her parents are from India and she is a realtor. In the film, she is very disapproving of Sonali's friendship with Tara and Jaydn; only after Sonali becomes Chrissa and Gwen's friend does she appear to be proud of her daughter.

Mr. Matthews
Sonali's father. Very little is known about him other than the fact that he is some kind of businessman (in one scene, he wears a tie and has "well-groomed fingernails"). Due to his Western last name, it is possible that Sonali is only part Indian.