Chrissa is the first book about Chrissa Maxwell. It is included with the doll and is also available separately.
Facts
- Author: Mary Casanova
- Illustrator: Richard Jones
- First published: 2009
Characters
- See Also: Minor Characters in Chrissa's Stories
- Chrissa Maxwell
- Gwen Thompson
- Sonali Matthews
- Nana: Chrissa's grandmother. Raises mini-llamas.
- Meg Maxwell: Chrissa's mother, a doctor.
- Paul Maxwell: Chrissa's father, a potter who runs Maxwell Pottery.
- Tyler Maxwell: Chrissa's brother, who is older by eleven months.
- Tara: the leader of the Mean Bees.
- Jadyn: one of the Mean Bees.
- Mr. Beck: Chrissa's teacher.
- Ms. Rundell: the art teacher.
- Mrs. Ziminsky: The principal of Edgewater Elementary.
- Tara's mother: believes Tara can do no wrong; owns three hair salons.
- Jadyn's father
- Mrs. Matthews: Sonali's mother, whose parents immigrated from India.
- Mr. Matthews: Sonali's father.
- Janine Thompson: Gwen's mother, who is trying to get her and Gwen's life back together.
- Cosmos: One of Nana's mini llamas.
- Checkers: Nana's other mini llama, who is pregnant.
- Keefer: Nana's pet Siamese cat.
Chapter By Chapter Summary
Chapter One: Parallel Universe
The Matthews family relocates to Minnesota from Iowa to be with Nana following the death of Chrissa's grandfather. Chrissa hates moving and misses her friends, but likes her grandparents' home near Lake Chandler. Chrissa meets Cosmos and Checkers, Nana's two pet mini llamas. It is revealed that Chrissa's grandparents used to raise full-sized llamas until Chrissa's grandfather's health began to fail. Mr. Beck, Chrissa's new teacher gives her a valentine's list and Chrissa spends time hand making valentines for her classmates. On her first day of school Chrissa is put in Cluster 4, with Tara, Jadyn and Sonali, who do not like her and of whom are mean to her.
Chapter Two: Valentine Troubles
Chrissa wakes up excited for Valentine's day and delivers her Valentines to her classmates. She witnesses Tara, Jadyn, and Sonali write a mean valentine for "Loser Girl" Gwen Thompson but ignores their actions. Chrissa nicknames the girls the Mean Bees. They cut a hole into Chrissa's valentines box and steal all of the valentines Chrissa got from her classmates but one, the one from Gwen Thompson.
Chapter Three: Unexpected Call
Mr. Beck announces that the registration forms are almost due for swimming and tries to calm the class down. Chrissa boards the school bus and sits with her brother, and then the Mean Bees come and say hi to her brother for no apparent reason. Chrissa warns Tyler not to listen to them, telling him that they are not as nice as they seem. Once at home, Chrissa and her brother meet up with Chrissa's father, who is driving Chrissa's grandfather's tractor. Chrissa describes Nana's home, with its "gingerbread trim" and "wrap around porch with its sloping green floor, white railings, and wicker furniture now covered in canvas for the winter." While checking up on Nana's cat, Keefer, Chrissa receives a call.
Chapter Four: A Bad Joke
The call turns out to be from Sonali, one of the Mean Bees, who wants to come by Chrissa's home. Chrissa cleans up her home in anticipation that Sonali might want to be a friend, and waits for Sonali to show up. When Sonali and her mother do show up, Mrs. Matthews prods Sonali into talking to Chrissa and Sonali has a red shopping bag in hand. Sonali confesses to Chrissa that she was told by Tara to take all of Chrissa's valentines home with her, but that her mother caught her with valentines that were not hers and made her give them back to Chrissa. When pressed, Sonali reveals that her mother made her come, otherwise she would not have come. Chrissa doesn't want to cause a stir with her family, so when Nana asks her who came over Chrissa replies that she forgot her valentines at school and that a friend brought them over for her. Nana gives Chrissa permission to call her friend Amanda in Iowa. Chrissa calls Amanda but Amanda is away for the weekend with Haley, another one of Chrissa's friends, in Des Moines.
Chapter Five: Llamas and Girls
Nana invites Chrissa to breakfast the next morning with Cosmos and Checkers. Chrissa decides that maybe she can convince her father and Nana to homeschool her, since some of her cousins in Texas are homeschooled. Chrissa helps Nana move Cosmos and Checkers to the van. Chrissa is afraid that they would kick Nana, but Nana explains that llamas don't kick or hurt people, just each other because they want to show who is boss. For the first time Chrissa brings up the Mean Bees, but just mentions that they are a group of girls from school. Nana mentions that she and Chrissa's grandfather used to take llamas to nursing homes as the animals would cheer people up. Nana pulls into a drive thru and orders food for her and Chrissa while the workers at the drive through look at and ask questions about llamas. Once they've got their food Nana and Chrissa get ready to leave but then are stopped by two pedestrians who turn out to be Tara and Jadyn, who ask Nana about Checkers and Cosmos. When they ask about if the animals are house trained, Nana mentions that they don't go in the car at all she has them trained so well. She lets Cosmos and Checkers know where its appropriate to go to the bathroom by leaving "llama beans" on the ground. Nana then tells Tara and Jadyn that she always keeps a can of "llama beans" on her person.
Nana and Chrissa come back home after breakfast and Tyler complains of not being allowed to come along. Chrissa mentions the mean bees to her parents very briefly but feels daunted when her mother responds by saying "give them time." Chrissa's father reveals that he needs help if he is going to get 200 bowls ready for a fundraiser. Tyler brings up the idea to have the 4th and 5th graders at Edgewater Elementary help put glaze on the bowls. While working on crafts with Nana, Chrissa thinks of the Mean Bees and Gwen some more, and determines to try to be nice to Gwen.